Can't get covid at work

Nurses COVID

Updated:   Published

hospital-manager-says-it-is-safer-at-hospital.jpg.e7fc600708caca656d2ce0565ae45b61.jpg

My hospital is saying that if nurses get COVID, it is not from the hospital. 

The hospital isn't responsible.  It's our co-workers, our family, ourselves, but not the hospital. 

It is safer to be at the hospital than anywhere else. 

Cannon Fodder.  That's exactly what we are.

10 minutes ago, Crystal-Wings said:

Your hospital only wishes that were true. That’s the most ignorant statement I’ve read this week. 

Can you clarify your statement and use more words to add what you are trying to say.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
4 hours ago, magellan said:

Can you clarify your statement and use more words to add what you are trying to say.

It means that hospital admins wish that it were impossible to get Covid-19 at work. They know full well that the statement that you can't get covid-19 at work is pure baloney.

Sorry, I know you weren't talking to me. ?

2
Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Flight/ICU-CCU/ER/Paramedic.

Wow. ? ? 

I’m not currently working and yep, feel marginally guilty... but... have been off a while d/t a serious injury — mostly recovered, most days tho — that occurred off the job ?. 

However, it’s idiocy like this from tptb in admin that will keep me on the farm as safely on the farm as possible. I’m fortunate in that we have the resources that allow me to remain home and also stay well prepared in the pandemic  

FTR - I haven’t left the farm without an N95 (we had multiple respirators/filters & several cases of disposables here when the pandemic hit, due to the crops we process, farm use & need to remain safe) face shielding, gloves since MARCH. Yep, I think I was a bit ahead of the PPE curve. 

I’m out infrequently and when I do go out,  it’s at crazy early hours & I look like I’m shopping for a family of 15, not just 2. Plus UPS/FedEx/USPS prolly thought I was developed a sudden shopping problem. ?

This is scary stuff. If you are over a certain age and/or have underlying health issues it is beyond reckless for an employer to announce that they would not cover you for any illness that could certainly be contracted OTJ.  Not to mention that this illness could be fatal. I think if that’s an employer’s position, nurses should not care for unknown or COVID+ patients. 

There. Problem solved for admin. Let nursing admins come take care of the COVID+ wards. Bet that ??gets shoveled up real fast.  
 

2
Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Peds.

Actually,compared to other specialties ad in particular home health nursing anyway,this is true.

We do not have adequate PPE,we employees do not get tested regularly,and we give nebulizer treatments,work around trach,vents,and just overall are in  someone's home for  at least 8 hours/day.My job never gave me an N95,and we work around clients that never took a Covid test. We nor the patients  do not get tested regularly,and my job never mandated any testing for us.I even have coworkers that refuse(and don't) wear masks,not even cloth or surgical masks. We have no way of knowing if there are infected family members. I should also add again we are in someone's home for 8 hours,in an enclosed space,working around aerosol treatments. A few of our clients did have Covid 19,and a few nurses did get sick.

3
Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Trauma, Med/surg, CM, UM,.
On 12/3/2020 at 9:07 AM, missmollie said:

hospital-manager-says-it-is-safer-at-hospital.jpg.e7fc600708caca656d2ce0565ae45b61.jpg

My hospital is saying that if nurses get COVID, it is not from the hospital. 

The hospital isn't responsible.  It's our co-workers, our family, ourselves, but not the hospital. 

It is safer to be at the hospital than anywhere else. 

Cannon Fodder.  That's exactly what we are.

Interesting... 95% of the people I know that have contracted covid   and/or had exposure are in the hospital I work in. The only one I know that wasn't from an employee at the hospital I work in died from covid. The odds seem to say otherwise in my world at least. I don't understand their thinking on this one

 

1
Up Vote Up Vote ×

I had a question. My employer at an outpatient surgery center discovered an employee that had covid. There was not contact tracing involved after she was sent home (she's been sick and out for 2 weeks now). I have inquired and management says they can't say anything because of HIPAA, but shouldn't my employer inform us that we've been exposed to covid??? There hasn't been one word. Is this legal? Shouldn't they HAVE to tell us?? Not one word that I've been working next to someone with covid. The only reason I know she has covid is because I know her friends outside of work and they told me. Am I crazy or is it immoral at the very least not to inform us. I think they are keeping is hushed because if they let everyone know they would have to shut down and test everyone.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in OR.

Not working, NOT feeling guilty. In fact, training to get my CDL (Commercial Driver's License) so I don't have to take another nursing job until it is 'safe' to do so. Feel sorry for all y'all that just got out of nursing school and feel obligated to work as a nurse to pay back loans. Nursing work AND saving shrewdly has afforded me this 'pause' to re-evaluate what makes me excited to get up in the morning. When hockey hurt more than it was fun, I put my skates and equipment away. I'm in the same space now, making a decision about working as a nurse. I worked at some of the largest HIV treatment centers in the U.S. (Houston), understanding my risk of HIV, Heb B, etc. was elevated from working in the OR, but I felt relatively safe in my practice. This was because I could control what I did, being careful handling blood & body fluids and appropriate PPE.

This pandemic is entirely different. In the past year, working in two different states that had mask protocol orders in place, I found myself in communities in those states that were living in an alternate universe. The non medical town folk, AND, the should know better nurses I worked with wouldn't wear a mask?!? Other colleagues report working in doctor owned surgical facilities that 3 of 5 doctors are COVID positive, and, never quarantined, never missed a day...came to work POSITIVE and thought that was okay because they were wearing masks?! I have experienced the COVID break room risk, with no distancing, people with masks OFF much longer than it takes them to eat or drink, and, managers that can't or won't lead in these difficult times.

There is a turning over of reptilian management in healthcare, to something that is even MORE malignant and focused on dollars not patients or the infrastructure to provide care to patients, nurses. It was always 'bad' but it is orders of magnitude worse now. They expect nurses to battle COVID defenseless, without adequate PPE. This baloney about mask reuse was malpractice a year ago, and, in the elapsed year, production has afforded more supply to the market. One place I went to did a fit test on a very good N95, then switched the brand when you got to the clinical area, to something that didn't fit....criminal behavior, if I cared to file a report with CMS....I don't. Don't believe the doe-eyed looks they give you about 'lack of PPE', they know EXACTLY what they are doing, because their budget metrics tell them what supply levels they SHOULD have based on pt DRG's. Their cost saving bonuses are coming at the expense of not just PATIENT lives, but NURSE lives...they KNOW that!

Will I take another contract RN job? Maybe, more likely NOT.

 

1
Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Add a Comment