C Diff Contamination Fears

[nursebrianna20]

Hi. I am a new nurse (less than a year experience) and have recently started working in a long term care facility. I also happen to have contamination OCD (for 10+ years). Anyway, one of the residents in the facility has C Diff. I was told it was chronic and she is listed on the report sheet as potentially having C Diff, so I don’t know the full picture but I do know she is currently not on any treatment for it. Normally this wouldn’t bother me terribly, but none of the other staff follow proper precautions when taking care of her. Some of them glove up but still don’t wash their hands afterwards. The nurses I’ve been training with have touched her without gloves on and only use hand sanitizer, which doesn’t kill the spores. They then proceed to care for other residents and touch items all over the unit which I then have to touch and touch other residents with. They touch their phones and eat without washing their hands too and it doesn’t bother them so I feel like something is really wrong with me. I’m terrified I’m going to spread C Diff spores to someone, especially my mother who had a liver transplant four months ago and whom I still live with. I’m terrified of ever taking antibiotics again and waking up the spores in my body. And I’m also concerned because I take a PPI as I read that can increase your risk of C Diff. But more than anything I don’t want to harm my mother or other residents in the building. So my question is how likely am I to spread these germs to my family and others? I wash my hands before leaving work and always before eating but have to touch doors that other staff who don’t wash touch so now I feel my whole car is contaminated and my house as well since I have to touch the door to go inside before I can wash my hands again. I also worry my scrubs are contaminated after work since I accidentally touch them when working and I can’t bleach them because I don’t want to ruin them. I don’t know how to properly clean them. And the contaminated scrubs contaminate the washer and dryer so I feel all of our clothes are contaminated now. I know most of this thinking is illogical but I still think it’s normal to worry about my mother and the other residents since proper precautions are not being followed in the facility. Is that normal? I’m hoping to get in with my therapist sooner so we can discuss this fear but I wanted to ask on here as well. I know I probably sound crazy ?

TLDR- OCD contamination: Should I be worried about spreading C Diff spores to others (especially vulnerable populations) from a nursing facility that doesn’t follow proper precautions? 

[CommunityRNBSN, BSN, RN]

So, my current role involves a lot of psych and almost no infection-control, so when I read your piece, the OCD part was my primary concern!  Here’s my thought:

When you are away from work, and feeling calm, make a written list of realistic cleaning/disinfection tasks that you need to do around this patient. Here is an example:

1: Wear gloves when I care for this patient. 
2: wash with soap and water for 30 seconds after caring for her. 
3: change clothes when I get home and put scrubs into washer. 

next, if you have an infection control nurse or another trusted, experienced nurse at your facility, show them the list and ask them to review it and remove things that are unnecessary. 
 

Once you have your list, only allow yourself to do those tasks. So, in other words, when you get home and you’ve changed clothes and your mind starts saying “But what about your hair?  You could have germs in your hair!” you take a deep breath and ignore it, because washing your hair is not on your list. 

[hppygr8ful, ASN, RN, EMT-I]

3 hours ago, CommunityRNBSN said:

So, my current role involves a lot of psych and almost no infection-control, so when I read your piece, the OCD part was my primary concern!  Here’s my thought:

When you are away from work, and feeling calm, make a written list of realistic cleaning/disinfection tasks that you need to do around this patient. Here is an example:

1: Wear gloves when I care for this patient. 
2: wash with soap and water for 30 seconds after caring for her. 
3: change clothes when I get home and put scrubs into washer. 

next, if you have an infection control nurse or another trusted, experienced nurse at your facility, show them the list and ask them to review it and remove things that are unnecessary. 
 

Once you have your list, only allow yourself to do those tasks. So, in other words, when you get home and you’ve changed clothes and your mind starts saying “But what about your hair?  You could have germs in your hair!” you take a deep breath and ignore it, because washing your hair is not on your list. 

Very good advice