Least infectious floors

Nurses General Nursing

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Hi. I was reading a post by an RN who has a daughter at home who has cancer and she does not want to bring home any "bugs" to her. She says she is trying to get switched to another floor like post-partum where there aren't as may germs floating around. Can you all tell me which floors are usually the least infectious?? I know you can get bugs virtually anywhere, but I am thinking probably the ER or Med-Surg is where you'd see the most germs. What about Peds or Cardiac?? I am interested in those areas. To be honest, because of my own personal life situation, I too do not want to be around a bunch of germs if I can help it...I am real and know bugs exist in healthcare, but was curious if any floors were better then others. What she talked about peaked my interest. THANKS ALL! :specs:

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Specializes in Anesthesia.
Hi. I was reading a post by an RN who has a daughter at home who has cancer and she does not want to bring home any "bugs" to her. She says she is trying to get switched to another floor like post-partum where there aren't as may germs floating around. Can you all tell me which floors are usually the least infectious?? I know you can get bugs virtually anywhere, but I am thinking probably the ER or Med-Surg is where you'd see the most germs. What about Peds or Cardiac?? I am interested in those areas. To be honest, because of my own personal life situation, I too do not want to be around a bunch of germs if I can help it...I am real and know bugs exist in healthcare, but was curious if any floors were better then others. What she talked about peaked my interest. THANKS ALL! :specs:

I am thinking the cancer/chemo floor. Most of the patients are immune suppressed and they try to keep infectious patients/staff as far away from those patients as possible.

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Specializes in ortho, pedi.

sorry...you are so..wrong about peds.

not a "clean floor at all"!

i've seen more mrsa than you want to know.

lot's of little one's (less than 2) so it's not from school.

and let's talk about rsv, rotavirus, flu

every other room is on some kind of precaution status

and the oncology kids with their weakened immune systems seem to "pick up everything" esp c-diff

if you want clean..you need to go to ortho.

once any ortho pt spikes a temp, starts draining at a wound, cultures pos. for anything yukky...they're usu. sent to a med-surg area. can't have them all be gettin osteo from each other..

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I am thinking the cancer/chemo floor. Most of the patients are immune suppressed and they try to keep infectious patients/staff as far away from those patients as possible.
A cancer unit is not somewhere I'd want to work if I were concerned about exposure to infection.

Because these patients are immunosuppressed, they often are infected. Shingles, fungal infections, bacterial infections are not uncommon. Even though we will place them in protective isolation when they are neutropenic, many will be on contact/droplet/airborne as well.

As far as not allowing infected patients on the same unit, infection control tells us that if we are following standard (and other) precautions as we should be, then there is minimal risk of cross-infection.

But at the same time, they strictly enforce NO infected patients on post-partum.

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Specializes in Urgent Care, Step-Down, and ER.

I've seen TB patients in universal precautions on admission and finding out pt. is TB positive a day later or 2, while sharing a room with another patient. Door open, everyone passing by (hospital staff, family, friends) probably exposed. VRE positive patients and MRSA patients being isolated 2-3 days after testing.

Once they are admitted to any floor, the tests don't come back right away so you will always be exposed to something.

In nursing, the only way to get away from the "germs" is to become an office nurse, or simply change your profession in sake of your own. You may think you took all the necesarry precautions to not come in contact, but trust me, when we sit on the same chairs all nurses do to chart, can you guaranty that the nurse before you took all the precautions?

We just need to do our best to protect ourselves and our loved ones.

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Thanks. Those were some good posts. I figured in PEDS they get everything in the world... kinda figured that. What about Cardiac?? Also- what exactly is a post-partum floor? Thanks everbody!! :) I apprecicate the advice as always!!

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Oh hey... isn't RSV mostly a child's sickness?? Is it hard for adults to get?? I am thinking mostly just kids get this. I know children get lots of illnesses that most adults have immunity to (I am starting PEDS this semester).

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Specializes in Ortho, Case Management, blabla.

if you want clean..you need to go to ortho.

once any ortho pt spikes a temp, starts draining at a wound, cultures pos. for anything yukky...they're usu. sent to a med-surg area. can't have them all be gettin osteo from each other..

i work in ortho and we get er admits all the time when we don't have enough beds filled. believe me, we get some nasty cases!! fungal meningitis/c.diff most recently. we also have to deal with the patients that get infected prosthetics and have to come in for revisions. sometimes those infections are mrsa and god-knows-what-else. (at least, the ortho floor i work)

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Geriatrics.

There are no patient care areas that are "bug-lite" (especially not PEDS!!!!!) these days. Everyone has to deal with it.

You or your friend may want to consider working in other areas inside the hospital like employee health, QA, administration, research, or staff development. Good luck!

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Specializes in Jack of all trades, and still learning.

Took the words out of my mouth. I'm in ortho at the moment. There is no way they would let anyone remotely infectious onto the ward...

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Specializes in Neonatal ICU (Cardiothoracic).

Good luck finding a "clean unit" with more and more sicker patients being admitted to hospitals today, along with the spike in MRSA, VRE and CDiff infections these days. My guess would be that a surcical cardiac floor such as a CVICU or surgical stepdown would be "cleanest", however germs are going to be anywhere you go in the hospital...comes with the territory. OB can be just as dirty, with STDs, MRSA, you name it. People are still people.

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Specializes in Dialysis, Nephrology & Cosmetic Surgery.

To avoid coming into contact with MRSA you need to avoid people! Most pts I know who swab positive for MRSA were asyptomatic - it was only picked up on routine swabbing. Patients were the same people we were standing next to in the supermarket queue yesterday - the same people who touched the door handle we touched directly after them. They are the people we share a bed with at night or kiss goodbye to at the school gate.

It is estimated that at least 20% of "people" - depending on which research you read, some suggest nearer 50% - are colonised with MRSA - you might be one of them.

I sometimes think we are safer working in hospital as at least we can identify some of these carriers - whereas in our everyday lives we have no way of knowing.

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