West Nile Virus or EEE question:

Nurs4kids-
Yes! I work at Children's. Do you as well? The majority of calls we get on the JCHD line are from various citizens calling to ask us what to do with a dead bird they just found. "If it's not decaying, place it in a ziplock bag, put in freezer, and bring it to the Health Department on Monday when they open" is all the information we have to tell them. We have a lottery each night at work on how many "dead bird" calls we'll have...LOL

I too am a parent and understand the concern, but not the "panic" that some of these people call with. Some of them actually want us to send them to the ER "just to be sure". We are trying our best to educate these callers that fevers and/or headaches are caused by a variety illnesses, but should more flu-like sx such as all over joint or muscle pain/weakness occur, to call back ASAP.

This is really no different than the panic of a "meningitis" report which also triples our call load that night with more folks who want to go immediately to the ED "just to be sure". There has, however, been an increased DX of meninigitis cases recently and now any kid that calls with a combination of Fever/Headache/Vomiting is sent to ED. Childrens South (After Hours) was recently bombarded with spinal taps and not staffed well enough to handle this, so now everyone has to go into ED.

While I may at times get frustrated with all the panic and anxiety some of these parents have when calling us, I first am a "mother" and second am a "nurse". I often have to remind myself that they don't all have the knowledge that I have therefore it's my job to do as much teaching/education as I can during that 5-15 minute phone call, and hopefully in the process reassure mom or dad that we all want what is best for their child.

PS: If you do work at TCHA, what unit/floor?

Take care!

DebbyED-

I couldn't agree with you more! I worked ER for 2 years before moving to my current job (telephone triage). The threat or fear of "needles" seems to cause many patients to miraculously be cured or healed! Just like the the thought of a catheter suddenly causing someone to be able to provide a UA on demand when first saying "I can't go right now".

Notice also that some of the folks think that if they say "I've had this pain for 2 months" instead of saying they've been hurting for only 2 days or 2 hours makes them seem LESS acute, and therefore less of an emergency? Not sure if that drove me more nuts, or if it was the folks that would "say all the right things" during the triage process to speed up their being brought to a room faster, to in turn totally contradict their chief complaint once the MD came into the room. ARGH! I'd say "they complained of chest pain and SOB in triage" and now they say they are "constipated". Sheesh! Calgon.....take me away!