[SmilingBluEyes]

Originally Posted by PeachPie

Tell them that a resident/patient has herpes, but don't tell them which one. HSV is pretty common (many people have it but never get a flare-up), so it prolly wouldn't be a total lie. While I was working LTC, a resident did have herpes, which made me doubly careful, and I'd tell new people that there were some residents that had herpes, but didn't tell them which ones. That tended to help, especially since diaper rash looks like herpes to the untrained eye. However, if there's people who won't learn, you just have to report them. This is hard, as you'll be seen as a nasty tattletale and you'll be shortstaffed if the CNA gets fired (this is the eternal catch-22 of nursing homes).

I know what you mean about CNAs not washing their hands or wearing gloves. I worked as a CNA in a nursing home, and it was disgusting. I distinctly remember this one woman who had these long nasty acrylics and ornate jewelry, and she NEVER WORE GLOVES, even when I offered her gloves. She barely spoke English, and I don't know how she got her CNA license. The problem with CNAs is that a chunk of them are uneducated and sadly, it doesn't take much to be a CNA. In a perfect world, LTC facilities could afford to be picky. I did meet some great CNAs, but most of them left b/c the ones who cared had to do the work of the people who didn't care, and it was a stressful, strenuous, low-paying job.

Not a good idea. Better one would be to notify your manager, infection control nurse or risk mgt department about this ongoing problem, if you can't seem to get them to do what they should yourself.

[mom2bears]

I am agreeing with DusktilDawn. There needs to be a mandatory inservice reviewing the basics of hand hygeine and pericare. It would be hard to police everybody, but something needs to be done.

[banditrn]

Our LTCF regularly runs out of gloves!! This is just amazing to me that they can't keep adequately stocked on such things.

From what I can observe, the CNA's there are good about hand-washing. But some of them have been around a long time, and think that these sweet old folks could never have anything nasty come from their bodies.

I have to say that some nurses are just as bad - I was trained to use gloves when instilling eye gtts, but most of the nurses don't use gloves or wash their hands when doing that.

[lisal11]

I worked in a LTC (as a social worker, not a nurse) and that home had a fiercely enforced policy about gloves. The CNA was not allowed to don gloves until ready for patient care and had to take them off immediately after patient care. Any CNA caught "traveling" with gloves on was instantly written up even if they just forgot to remove them before leaving a patient room.

[Annabelle57]

Ugh... GROSS.

Where I work as a CNA, hand hygiene (and the enforcement of it) is a pretty big thing, and at least on the m/b floor I'm on, I've never had a problem with other staff not utilizing proper hand hygiene (I'm borderline OCD about it myself ). I did use to work on a med/surg floor where a few of the staff wouldn't routinely wear protective gear other than gloves, like going into a contact isolation room without the gown (and leaning all over the patient, who had MRSA or scabies or whatever). Ugh.

My suggestion would be to talk to whomever is in charge - not sure who that is where you work, but our first line of contact would be the asst RN mgr on our floor, then the nursing supervisor, and so on. Are there any other staff members who have expressed the same concern? Encourage them to say something as well (that whole strength-in-numbers thing).

Good luck!

[joshuaha]

At the hospital where I work, our infection control director presented a very powerful obit of a man who actually died from a hospital aquired infection. This really hit home for all of us, the thought that we could actually be hurting our patient! Worse still, there is always the possibility that you could aquire an infection or bring it home to your family. It seems to me that not washing your hands/wearing gloves is a sign of not caring about your patients well being! I understand it is a hard habit to develop but isn't the well being of our patients worth it?

[firstaiddave907]

Maby you might have to have an in service training on infection control and hand washing for those CNA's who don't it very well. and some CNA's are extremely careful about infection control.

[NurseKittyAtlanta]

Some (NOT all) of the CNAs I've worked with couldn't care less and have such bad attitudes it almost isn't worth trying to teach them about handwashing, infection control, etc. I teach all of my patients the importance of handwashing (hey, it's our job to do so, right?) and tell them it's perfectly okay to ask their caregivers to wash their hands and put on gloves before performing care. I've seen them speak up numerous times, and the caregivers comply. Funny how the CNAs seem to listen/understand better when it comes straight from the patient (who consequently also fills out the satisfaction survey at discharge). ;-)

[jem1013]

I would think that having your infection control nurse inservice all nursing staff (nurses and CNA's), about the importance of hand washing and using protective items like gloves and gowns (when appropriate) and what the consequences are if found not using them or washing your hands. I also work in LTC and we too have staff CNA's and nurses who do not always use gloves or wash thier hands after care or dressing changes ect.. It honestly grosses me out!
I don't think telling the CNA's that a person may have something like herpies is a bad idea! If a nurse were to tell me that and then not tell me who, as I will ask, I would start looking at residents dx until I foud out whom it was. And like someone else already said I would surley wouldn't trust you when it came to anything like that again!! Fortunately the nurses are always very up front with us CNA's about what infections our residents have so we can be sure to protect ourselves.

[emllpn2006]

I would explain to them that touching any patient without using the protection of gloves could in reality be like signing their own death certificate. We were taught to be warry of everyone. The one person who you feel you know would not have AIDS or some other communicable disease is probably the person who does have one. Also just becouse some one is elderly doesnt mean that they have not been sexually active recently and could have undiagnosed HIV. If this doesnt scare them into wearing gloves and washing hands than they dont deserve to be caring for anyone and should be punished up to and including termination.