Asymptomatic, no known exposure: Should we get tested?

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Bedside RN here. I have not knowingly cared for any COVID patients with active infection and most (but not all) of my patients have an in-house negative swab before they come to my unit.

I have never been tested. I have coworkers who get tested regularly on their own outside of work.

Should I have a COVID test?  What is your personal policy on the matter?

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Specializes in Med-Surg.

I think it depends on your lifestyle outside of the facility.  Do you go out, do you wear a mask and social distance when out?  I have younger coworkers that get together with friends and go to bars and restaurants.  Here in Florida there is no lockdown and no restrictions.

Another thing to consider is the infection rate where you live.  Is it in a hard hit area?

I've only gotten one covid test a few months ago and that was because they were also offering free antibody testing and I was curious having been exposed to two patients and another person in the past.  I tested negative for both.

Since then I haven't had a known exposure, and I don't go out to large crowded places, wear a mask and keep my distance, etc.  As long as I'm not symptomatic or exposed I won't get tested.  

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Specializes in Critical Care.

I have cared for covid patients almost every day since may, including 3 months in a closed covid ICU which was PPE on-zone for the whole shift. we intubated everyone with our regular PPE/n95s on, had people on high flow, bipap, bagged people, etc. I have never had symptoms or been tested. I have been very careful in my personal life. me and my family haven’t had close contact with anyone other than a couple other family members who are on the same level of covid safety as we are, and they help us with child care. my kids aren’t in school/day care. 

I personally think, if you are only taking care of tested, negative patients, AND you are being careful, you don’t need to test unless you get symptoms.

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Specializes in Critical Care; Cardiac; Professional Development.

I think the test is only good for the few seconds it takes to do the swab. You could develop a viral load on the way home from the test itself. 

Without known exposure or symptoms, I see little value in random testing.

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Specializes in NICU, PICU, Transport, L&D, Hospice.

Gah

Testing strategies in the USA are nonexistent and confused.  

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In the past prior to covid. They’d say if you swab a nurses nose they’d be positive for MRSA.  

Now they swab asymptotic people for covid.  Does anyone have a medical study that shows how viralant one is asymptotic but test positive for covid?  Does your hospital do covid swabs on asymptotic hospital admits for bed assignment? 

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10 hours ago, askater112 said:

In the past prior to covid. They’d say if you swab a nurses nose they’d be positive for MRSA.  

And what they were implying was never true. As far as I have ever been able to tell from looking into the issue after hearing this claim innumerable times, HCWs' rate of MRSA colonization isn't wildly different than that of the general population. It's like a nursing joke ("We probably all have MRSA....") that somehow became a fake fact.

***

To the OP, it seems like this would be a very low-value activity.
 

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Jkl33 you sound very knowledgeable. Can you share articles on patients asymptomatic and virulent tendency. Thanks in advance.

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Specializes in NICU, PICU, Transport, L&D, Hospice.

August 28, 2020 Symptomatic and Asymptomatic Viral Shedding in Pediatric Patients Infected With Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)

JAMA-covid Shedding in Asymptomatic Patients.

Quote

  Many individuals with SARS-CoV-2 infection remained asymptomatic for a prolonged period, and viral load was similar to that in symptomatic patients; therefore, isolation of infected persons should be performed regardless of symptoms.

 

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On 12/6/2020 at 11:40 AM, askater112 said:

Jkl33 you sound very knowledgeable. Can you share articles on patients asymptomatic and virulent tendency. Thanks in advance.

And you sound like you are challenging me based on an assumption about what I might think.

There are other reasons this practice could be of lower relative value than just not believing in asymptomatic spread. I'll let you think on that.

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Specializes in Psych, Addictions, SOL (Student of Life).

I do psych which means many of our patients are of unknown status. They are very poor historians. I would gladly participate in testing every two weeks just to help gather data on the rate of asymptomatic cases among HCW.

Hppy

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Specializes in Psych, Addictions, SOL (Student of Life).
On 12/7/2020 at 9:19 AM, hppygr8ful said:

I do psych which means many of our patients are of unknown status. They are very poor historians. I would gladly participate in testing every two weeks just to help gather data on the rate of asymptomatic cases among HCW.

Hppy

Of course the problem is most employer's don't want to know this data!

Hppy

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