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| No. 20 | 
Dec 05, 2006, 10:29 AM
 Re: Are you prepared for Avian Flu?
Thanks LMonty911.
 | | Advertisement Sponsored Links | | | | No. 21 |
Dec 05, 2006, 09:30 PM
Re: Are you prepared for Avian Flu?
Hi All!
I'm currently working in Home Health in Alabama..I've been studying/following Avian flu for about a year.
The best book I've read on avian flu is Bird Flu - Welcome just released/
written by Michael Greger, MD Director, Public Health and Animal Agriculture
The Humane Society of the United States It's free, on line E-book with excellent sources, links-very well written with great info on all aspects of avian flu. It will scare the stuffing out of you. many, many quotes by experts from all fields, and great in depth info about 1918 flu. It's made me move to really getting prepared on a personal and professional level. I believe we will need to educate and organize our communities to survive this if it happens. There's no other way to deal with this issue. He is donating all proceeds from hard cover sales to charity and will answer any questions by email.-very nice man-very importatnt resource for professionals and lay people alike. Mary J
| | No. 22 |
Dec 05, 2006, 11:53 PM
Re: Are you prepared for Avian Flu?
Mary, its a great reference! I'm so glad to see you sharing it.
and so glad to see you preparing! I hope more are, even if they are too shy to share....
Dr Greger recently joined us as a member at Flutrackers. His expertise being made avialble to the public thru this book is a great contribution to public readiness! Ya gotta love it when hes donating all the money, I sure do! you kno whe hasnt got any agenda expcept wanting people to get prepared and decreasing morbidity and mortality.
| | No. 23 |
Dec 06, 2006, 06:24 PM
Re: Are you prepared for Avian Flu?
I am the Employee Health Nurse at Flowers Hospital Dothan, Alabama. I am also on the Pandemic Flu planning committee. HHS & CDC are espousing the use of phone triage to limit the amount of unnecessary ER visits for hangnails, back pain for 7 years and so forth during the surge of pandemic flu patients. Our hospital policy prohibits, as does most, the giving of medical advice over the phone. Now I understand that once most disaster/flu emergency response plans are activated most rules are out of the window but I would appreciate any and all responses on your policy and your opinions on the phone triage subject as well as the official stance your facility is taking. Please include your facility name and your title if possible.
Thanks and God Bless,
ETC
| | No. 24 |
Dec 06, 2006, 08:14 PM
Re: Are you prepared for Avian Flu?
For Alabama Medic-I don't know if my hospital /Home health agency is planning an ER phone triage program or not (I hope so!) but do know a software company that uses web based services for triaging HH patients.
This could automate the triage process for patients being tracked for the flu or other chronic diseases. It allows algorhythms for managing visits/MD calls by disease specific criteria-called TouchPointCare.
I'm going to set it up and beta test it for my HH agency-
will think thru possibilities for it helping with flu.
Please share any plans you have as I'm going to talk with my Director about getting us ready.
Thanks for sharing!
Mary J
| | No. 25 |
Dec 08, 2006, 08:31 AM
Re: Are you prepared for Avian Flu? Originally Posted by LMonty911  Yes, they CAN force you to work-executive order- and no, they dont have to provide the PPE if it runs out- they simply can't at that point.
It doesnt necessarily mean you get to go home.
It does mean theres a real likelyhood the rules change. And I'll bet we wont like those changes...
Here in Northern Ireland we can be forced to work also, with or without PPE's. I don't expect any less to be honest. When you go into Nursing or medicine it is a vocation, you can't bottle out when the going gets tough. The same as the military or police..There would be an outcry if they refused to protect us.
I, like others here have a young family but I also have family to care for them when my DH and I go to work. The plan was to always to have the little cousins in the one house anyway.
I think in Nursing you should always expect to be infected with something, if you don't you are lucky
| | No. 26 |
Dec 08, 2006, 09:13 AM
Re: Are you prepared for Avian Flu? Originally Posted by Gizzey Here in Northern Ireland we can be forced to work also, with or without PPE's. I don't expect any less to be honest. When you go into Nursing or medicine it is a vocation, you can't bottle out when the going gets tough. The same as the military or police..There would be an outcry if they refused to protect us.
I, like others here have a young family but I also have family to care for them when my DH and I go to work. The plan was to always to have the little cousins in the one house anyway.
I think in Nursing you should always expect to be infected with something, if you don't you are lucky
You know, the biggest reason of all for us to work? Look at who our patients will be. They will be young. They will be our children and our young adults, perhaps other age groups, but mostly the young. We can not abandon them. The potential loss of so many young people and children would be devasting. We have to try to save as many as we can. I still believe that most on this board will work because they will be unable to turn away. You said on your thread over at curevents.com that you would improvise if PPE's were not available. I guess we can do this also, we just have to realize that we might have to.
| | No. 27 |
Dec 08, 2006, 09:35 AM
Re: Are you prepared for Avian Flu? Originally Posted by indigo girl You know, the biggest reason of all for us to work? Look at who our patients will be. They will be young. They will be our children and our young adults, perhaps other age groups, but mostly the young. We can not abandon them. The potential loss of so many young people and children would be devasting. We have to try to save as many as we can. I still believe that most on this board will work because they will be unable to turn away. You said on your thread over at curevents.com that you would improvise if PPE's were not available. I guess we can do this also, we just have to realize that we might have to.
Hey 
I think thats it...Imagine young kids, the same age as your own and walking away..I couldn't! I suppose it could be seen as protecting our future.
At the moment I look after quite a few elderly neighbours and other neighbours come to me for advise. I am having a battle with myself wondering could I refuse to help them in a pandemic..I don't think I could, though if I am at work, that would solve that problem! I have a problem with people saying they are SIPing and not helping neighbours and family..I realise this is an issue with me and not the general public though.
Just reading an e-mail from a friend. She is a nurse in England. 2 of her local hospitals have had outbreaks of Pneumonia in the young and teens. Never been seen before allegedly.
It concerns me all these *isolated* outbreaks of respiratory illness. Asthma in my area, pneumonia in clusters in Southern Ireland and now in England..Strangely peculiar! 
I think as nurses we have become precious and spoilt. Think of nurses in developing countries, in military field hospitals, in the middle of natural disasters or terror attacks..They improvise, take risks and just generally get on with it..I hope to God things don't get that bad during a pandemic but I will keep it at the back of my mind. That there are other nurses out there who have it worse than me, who I am in awe off and who I am damn well going to try to work like..Though I may cry more than them..LOL
| | No. 28 |
Dec 08, 2006, 10:07 AM
Updated
Dec 08, 2006 at 10:20 AM by indigo girl
Re: Are you prepared for Avian Flu? Originally Posted by Gizzey Hey
I think thats it...Imagine young kids, the same age as your own and walking away..I couldn't! I suppose it could be seen as protecting our future.
At the moment I look after quite a few elderly neighbours and other neighbours come to me for advise. I am having a battle with myself wondering could I refuse to help them in a pandemic..I don't think I could, though if I am at work, that would solve that problem! I have a problem with people saying they are SIPing and not helping neighbours and family..I realise this is an issue with me and not the general public though.
Just reading an e-mail from a friend. She is a nurse in England. 2 of her local hospitals have had outbreaks of Pneumonia in the young and teens. Never been seen before allegedly.
It concerns me all these *isolated* outbreaks of respiratory illness. Asthma in my area, pneumonia in clusters in Southern Ireland and now in England..Strangely peculiar!
I think as nurses we have become precious and spoilt. Think of nurses in developing countries, in military field hospitals, in the middle of natural disasters or terror attacks..They improvise, take risks and just generally get on with it..I hope to God things don't get that bad during a pandemic but I will keep it at the back of my mind. That there are other nurses out there who have it worse than me, who I am in awe off and who I am damn well going to try to work like..Though I may cry more than them..LOL
I have been wondering about these odd outbreaks of pneumonias and such also. In Canada, middle aged and young adults coming down with pneumonias normally seen in the elderly, what's with that?
There are nurses and HCWs on all of the various flu blogs, I have noticed, and, I am wondering if we might put our collective knowledge together and do some planning and sharing of information. As individuals our voices may not be heard, but as a group, we may be able to make a difference towards national and international preparation in nursing care. Let us look at the various problems that we have begun to foresee, and make some contingency plans for our communities. To begin with, we must assume that even if H5N1 does not become pandemic, some other virus will, just because this is the nature of influenza A. We know it is not a matter of if, but rather it is a matter of when. This is the reality, based on our history, and nothing has occurred that will alter this event. The belief or disbelief of anyone who reads this has no bearing on what will happen. We can not wish it away. So, start with the admission that this is a given. Therefore, we absolutely must begin preparations for dealing with mass casualties, and hold our lawmakers to task for closing healthcare facilities during this God given time for preparation. There are so many, many issues that beg to be addressed.
| | No. 29 |
Dec 08, 2006, 10:16 AM
Updated
Dec 08, 2006 at 10:18 AM by indigo girl
Re: Are you prepared for Avian Flu?
Duplicate post, sorry...
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