I never thought about this until tonight, and then realized this could be a deciding factor in whether I accept a job or not... I have been offered a position in a Med/Tele unit in our county teaching hospital. It's a great place to work.. Magnet status, etc. However, our clientele is a lot of illegal immigrants, homeless, underserved population.. Which means most are probably not vaccinated against harmful diseases.
I have a 9 month old baby who is on a delayed vaccine schedule, and will only be receiving select vaccines against the most serious things, due to reactions she had to certain shots, and because of our own beliefs & comfort level with vaccines. I'm worried that if I'm working in an environment and with a population like this where I'm constantly exposed to serious illnesses and disease... can I bring these home with my and expose my baby as well?? Even though I'm vaccinated, I assume I could still carry something home that my antibodies are fighting off.
Hi, I worked for 11 years on an AIDS unit with pts who had vre, mrsa, polydrug resistant tb, klebsiella, pseudomonas, staph, strep, as well as the arcane bugs that hit only immune compromised pts. Never brought anything home ... and never went thru the elaborate cleaning rituals some other posters describe ... just normal daily hygiene.
Universal precautions are pretty effective ... use 'em.
I want to second the remarks above re assuming that immigrants are diseased ... what's immigration status got to do with immune systems or disease exposure??? They're more likely to catch something scary here in the US, given our overuse of antibiotics, seems to me.
In any case, it's the infections you don't know about that'll hurt you ... and you can come across those anywhere.
And immune compromised people have more to fear from us healthy people than we have to from them!
My statement about immigrants and MDR tuberculosis was not meant to be derogatory; it's simply that those diseases are rampant in their native lands.
If the immigrants are from Mexico, then exposure to Hep A may be an issue. Homeless may be bringing in TB. So perhaps adding the Hep A vaccine to the list of shots for your little one may be prudent, if that's a population you will be working with a lot. The fact of the matter is, if you live in an area with a lot of Mexican immigrants, a Hep A vaccine for your child is a good idea anyways just due to exposure from other children. Children really stink at practicing universal precautions.
OP, I just wanted to offer my support. I agree a lot of the responses were very negative and I think a lot of that sentiment is uncalled for. Parents make all kinds of decisions regarding their children's welfare which we may or may not agree with. As nurses and peers, it is not our place to make judgments, and hurl negative commentary. I'm fairly certain this issue has been hashed-out 800,000 times here on allnurses, and usually we end-up agreeing to disagree. For me, part of being a nurse is accepting and respecting the choices of others, even when they differ from my personal opinions.
I work with snotty and infected kids all day and I have 2 little ones at home. I do especially worry during RSV season(especially when they were babies). My clothes come off at the door and go into the wash- then I shower. I leave my shoes at work!
My husband has this nasty habit of chewing on the caps of pens and every time I see him I say "I hope I didn't use that pen in that kids room who had the c-diff!" He gets all grossed out! Serves him right..... nasty habit!
To the OP, I totally understand your decision to delay vax. If you are concerned about bringing things home, I would figure out: 1. Which diseases you are likely to come in contact with; 2. think about their method of transmission and how easily they are transmitted (from the patient to you, and then you to your family... the likelihood is soooooo small) Also, remember that many adults are not vaxed for these diseases (like your spouse), and you wouldn't be concerned about transmitting diseases to him, would you? Use the same rationale for your children.
I wish some of the people on here would show more respect.. she's not coming here looking for advice on whether or not to vaccinate her children. And for ANYONE to imply that her children are some sort of "breeding ground" for horrible diseases is absurd. Unvaxed/delayed vax kids (especially when they are breastfed, preferably for the first 1-2 years and stay at home [no daycare]--read Dr. Bob Sears's new Vaccine Book) are considerably healthier than the average formula fed, vaxed on schedule daycare children.
Yeah, living conditions had NOTHING to do with it. Nope. Not at all. Infectious disease has no correlation with clean living conditions. No way.
This is totally false. Clean living conditions was a major factor in infectious disease control. Did any of you guys attend the lecture about Florence Nightingale? "The sanitary, nutrition, and basic facilities in the battlefield hospitals were poor at best. Evenutally she was given the task to organize and improve the quality of the sanitation facilities. As a result, the mortality rate at the Barracks Hospital in Scutari, Turkey was reduced from 42.8% to 2.2% in 6 months." This is from my Fundamentals book.
From my Microbiology book: "Scientists have developed vaccines to prevent infections and drugs to treat them once they have become established. Moreover, we have made dramatic progress in preventing infectious disease through public hygiene, such as water treatment, sewage treatment, and better living conditions." (My bold and italics.)
Unvaxed/delayed vax kids (especially when they are breastfed, preferably for the first 1-2 years and stay at home [no daycare]--read Dr. Bob Sears's new Vaccine Book) are considerably healthier than the average formula fed, vaxed on schedule daycare children.
Unhealthier by what definition? You mean that the daycare kids (breastfed or formula fed) who get exposed to all the regular childhood diseases and therefore get tons of colds and flus and rotavirus and so on are considered less healthy than the children who are kept at home and not exposed to all those diseases? Because I seriously beg to differ. One's immune system is only built up by being exposed to diseases regardless of age and whether or not they are breastfed. So the kids who are kept at home just get to go through all the colds and flus and rotavirus and so on once they start kindergarten. Which is fine, but please, it doesn't make them "healthier".
Sorry to get on my soapbox but that's an argument that really sets me off (obviously).
Ok - now that we have rehashed the age old discussion about vaccinating children, let's get back to the discussion of how not to bring germs home to our families. Please...
rph3664
1,714 Posts
And immune compromised people have more to fear from us healthy people than we have to from them!
My statement about immigrants and MDR tuberculosis was not meant to be derogatory; it's simply that those diseases are rampant in their native lands.