MRSA in the nares

Nurses General Nursing

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I am a new nursing student and was wondering how you get a colonization of mrsa in the nose? I know it's not airborn, is it from putting dirty fingers in/ near your nose? As a carrier does that make it easier to get an infection elsewhere on your body?

Any input appreciated!

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Specializes in Emergency, Case Management, Informatics.

I'm guessing that you're asking this because of the swab for MRSA?

S. Aureus is common flora on the skin. Anything that can get on the skin can get in the nose through contact.

Why do we swab the nose? I'm not a microbiologist, but the warm wetness of the nose is probably a more stable environment than the skin for SA and MRSA. Easier to swab a wet nose than dry skin.

We'd probably get better results from swabbing the taint, but I'd rather just swab the nose. ;)

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MRSA can be airborne. MRSA can also be in the ears. According to my ENT, many healthcare workers often have MRSA in their ears due to not cleaning stethoscopes properly after using with pts.

From my experience, you can have MRSA just about anywhere on the body.

If you had MRSA in the nose it would be possible to spread if you had an open wound or sore that you touched after digging around in your nose.

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Specializes in ICU.

You can have it in your rectum too, but we won't go there. :D

Warm moist places is where it thrives.

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I suppose my original question should have asked- as nurses is it inevitable that we will all be mrsa carriers? Besides hand washing and PPE is there anything else we can do to protect ourselves?

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Specializes in Infectious Disease, Neuro, Research.
I suppose my original question should have asked- as nurses is it inevitable that we will all be mrsa carriers? Besides hand washing and PPE is there anything else we can do to protect ourselves?

1) Yes.

2) Not really. Being a carrier is pretty much inevitable. If NICU nurses have neg swabs, its because they're using Neosporin in the nares (coughcough) generally.;)

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You can have it in your rectum too, but we won't go there. :D

Warm moist places is where it thrives.

Yes, please let's not go into any rectums.:cool:

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Specializes in Hospice.

It is suspected that the majority of healthcare workers carry MRSA. I worked in a hospital for awhile that was trialing full contact precautions with all ICU patients to help prevent MRSA infections. It worked- no nosocomial infections in 12 months. Pretty amazing!

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19 years of working and 7 in and out of hospitals....never have tested + for MRSA colonization...and first job in LTC in 1985 had more people on Vanc than I can count. More types of nursing= more ways to see MRSA.... it's not inevitable.....but not the end of the world, either :)

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Specializes in ICU, Telemetry.

Considering that one of the fastest growing populations with MRSA infections are small children with ear infections (and I've seen green goo just dripping out of a kid's ear), I'm more concerned about the handle on a shopping cart at the grocery store as a fomite than I am the "ears" around my neck. People with MRSA aren't just confined to NHs and ICUs, these folks are or were out in the community, wiping their noses and touching elevator buttons, door handles, the pen at the bank, places where I'm not wearing gloves and there's not a alcohol foam bottle every 30 feet.

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Specializes in Emergency/Trauma.
I'm guessing that you're asking this because of the swab for MRSA?

S. Aureus is common flora on the skin. Anything that can get on the skin can get in the nose through contact.

Why do we swab the nose? I'm not a microbiologist, but the warm wetness of the nose is probably a more stable environment than the skin for SA and MRSA. Easier to swab a wet nose than dry skin.

We'd probably get better results from swabbing the taint, but I'd rather just swab the nose. ;)

exactly. staph aureus lives on humans. some people's s. aureus happens to be the methicillin resistant variety.

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Specializes in Emergency; med-surg; mat-child.
I'm guessing that you're asking this because of the swab for MRSA?

S. Aureus is common flora on the skin. Anything that can get on the skin can get in the nose through contact.

Why do we swab the nose? I'm not a microbiologist, but the warm wetness of the nose is probably a more stable environment than the skin for SA and MRSA. Easier to swab a wet nose than dry skin.

We'd probably get better results from swabbing the taint, but I'd rather just swab the nose. ;)

Heh. You said 'taint'.

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