[marcicatherine]

I am an RN in a very busy ER in Arkansas. I am curious about the effect the flu is having on other ER's around the country.
I work 8 (7-3) hour shifts. Over the last month we have been overwhelmed with patients. This weekend, by 10 am, our waiting room was packed and the wait time was already up to 2-3 hours just to get to a room. (we're a 32 bed ER) We have no flu screens. When the lab does get them in, they get enough to last about 2 days. The docs write Rx's for Tami-flu and flumadine. If the patients can find a pharmacy in the area that is not out of the meds, they are lucky. Thus we are overwhelmed with calls from patients wanting US to find them a pharmacy that has the meds. What concerns me is...........the peak of the flu season has yet to hit! Amazingly enough not a single doc, nurse or tech in our ER has came down with the flu!!

[RN2B4ABBY]

Hi! That is crazy & very sad for all the people who are getting the flu!

My daughter is 7 months old and her pediatrician told me not to worry about a flu shot for her because she was breastfed at the beginning & newborns are more at risk then she is. Now I am hearing all sorts of information about things such as they expect the flu to kill at least 65,000 people and nobody is really "immune" from the flu. I am not sure how reliable these facts are. Now that they are out of flu shots, I didn't even want to take my daughter to the mall tonight to get Christmas photos because I know that it is airborne (along with the props they use for children) and I didn't want to take a chance. Am I overreacting?

[erdiane]

YOU CANNOT GET A FLU VACCINE FOR ANYONE UNDER 4 YRS OF AGE. IN AZ, WE ARE NOW SEEING 4 HOUR WAITS IN THE GROCERY STORES FOR THE VACCINE! WE HAVE HAD 2 CHILDREN DIE FROM THE FLU, AND, I BELIEVE, 4 ADULTS. WE ARE NOT YET AS BAD AS COLORADO, BUT ARE ON OUR WAY. A HUGE PERCENTAGE OF THE PEOPLE WE SAW IN THE ER YESTERDAY WERE FOR FLU S/S. PEOPLE! STAY HOME! DRINK PLENTY OF FLUIDS, TAKE TYLENOL AND STAY HOME! DON'T SEND YOUR KIDS TO SCHOOL WITH A FEVER...........DON'T ASK YOUR DR. TO PRESCRIBE ABX.......TREAT THE SYMPTOMS, AND DON'T INFECT EVERYONE ELSE!

[MrsWampthang]

We have seen so many people in our ER for FLU it is ridiculous! As someone said, go home, drink plenty of fluids and rest! Don't be out infecting everyone else! I had one girl get mad and leave because I wouldn't take her back right away. She said she felt "lightheaded and couldn't get her breath." Yeah right, whatever! Her BP was within normal limits and her O2 sat was 98% on room air! I told her that there were several other people ahead of her and she had what EVERYONE else had been coming in with so she was just going to have to wait for her turn! After she left and I wrote up our Midas report I happened to look at her insurance info.....NONE! Imagine that!

I hate to sound crabby, but I had a FAMILY come in with flu (threefer) supposedly couldn't get into their family doc and there was too long a wait at the intermediate clinic in town. I told the mom, that it was going to be a long wait here too because we were swamped!

I don't understand why people think that the common flu is serious enough to warrant a trip to the ER. They don't even try to make it into something else. They say at triage "I have the flu." I don't know what they want us to do that they can't do for themselves at home. Guess I am just tired tonight, having seen numerous people during the last 10 hours that didn't need to be here. Talk about tying the ER up with stupidity and wasting time and resources!

Sorry this is such a long rant!

I'll go back to my corner now and calm down!

Pam

[athomas91]

it just started last wk here - and our nurses are dropping like flies.... on dec 2 we started the cdc guidelines - isolation for anyone w/ cough/cold/fever - so pretty much we are wearing masks our entire shift - hey if it keeps me healthy i am all for it (i think i already had it last wk anyway - got pneumonia !!!)

are you all using the same guidelines?? i know NY is....

[OriginalWmn]

The ED at the hospital where I work (Children's Hospital) was on mass casualty alert (but no accident/mass casualty) for 120 kids in ED mostly with flu. People are really flipping out with the deaths from flu. I came in to work extra on the floor b/c they pulled 1 RN and all of the techs to the ED. And the hospital was busy and a mad house x 2weeks before last night so I am worried about going in tonight.
We only admitted 2 kids with the flu so I think they sent most home to rest and drink plenty of fluids. Hope I don't get it. I don't want the flu as my Christmas present!

[jenny867-5309]

My goodness. Most of our patients in the last week have been families and children with common cold symptoms. We normally have a 1-2 hour wait to get into a room. When it's busy we have a 2-4 hour wait. Now it has been about 5 hours. It's bad enough that we get every child in the area who's parents can't give their children tylenol at home. Now we have every paranoid parent within a 5 town radius coming in because they have "THE FLU!" Get a grip people and see your own doctor.

[momoftriplets]

our ED is also having an increase in waits to being seen, usually it is around 1 hour, now we are up to 5 hours or so, all the patients are ******, we are swabbing everyone for the flu and we do have positive's, just had a 13 day old yesterday. The patients then start freaking out and yelling because we don't really prescribe them anything, depending on how long they have had their symptoms, they might not even get the tamilflu. I am telling my patients up front that other than rest and fluids, there isn't anything we can really do for them that being in their own bed can't do. Also, most of our flu is body aches, headache and cough, cold type stuff, very rarely vomiting, what sx are you guys seeing?


and no, we aren't using the CDC guidelines for isolation, the staff isn't wearing masks either, sounds like I will be asking these questions before my next shift, take care everyone!!!

[Silverdragon102]

Here in the UK in preparation for the Flu it is licenced for anyone from 6 months upwards, and if it is the childs first injection they should recieve a booster in 4 weeks. At the moment mainly children are affected but everyone from 6months and at risk are advised to get their flu shot.

[kevro1013]

We have had many flooding our ED with "Flu" like symptoms: fever, cough, chills etc.. Many do not even take tylenol/advil at home for the fever-they just come in and c/o fever. I am trying to take the opportunity to educate about this (take tylenol q4 advil q6 atc) but to many it is like they are hearing it for the first time! I had someone ask me why the tylenol they took yesterday morning was not still working on their fever. (I guess the fever had their mental status altered!) Also had a lady screaming at a doc because he would not give her antibiotics and narcs for her "flu" (had to call security)