Cdiff disease

[Anahi1love]

Please read and bare with me.

Hi I'm a caregiver perusing a career in the nursing field as well. I had my fist day of training in the assisted living where I well be working at 3 days of the week 12 hr shifts. As I started working there I come to find out 2 residents have a disease called CDIff which stands for

clostridium difficile colitis, pseudomembranous colitis. I have done numerous research and have learned about the disease to protect myself and my family as i have 3 small children. This diseases is contagious if the right precautions are not done right which is to wear gloves and gown when caring for the patient. But from my understanding this residents are not isolated away in their rooms and instead are at the table with 8 other residents and staff. I don't know how to bring this up to the owners of this care home. Please give me advice

I'm planning to wear gloves at all times to protect my self as soap doesn't kill this spores.

[XB9S, BSN, MSN, EdD, RN, APN]

Clostridium Difficile is an bacteria found in peoples bowels, it can be found in healthy individuals where is causes no symptoms. It causes problems when normal gut bacteria is compromised for example after taking antibiotic.

firstly I would ask if your residents are symptomatic, so are they having active diarrhoea? If not then they are likely to be GDH positive (GDH is the abbreviation for Glutamate dehydrogenase, which is a chemical found in C.diff. 2. whether it is causing you an infection. ... If the chemical is found, the result is termed 'GDH positive' which means C.diff is present in the bowel.) But toxin negative which means the bacteria are not active so no infection.

As far as how you protect yourself, hand washing between each clinical interaction is the key.

[cardiacfreak, ADN]

Yes, definitely hand washing, alcohol based gel hand sanitizers are not effective.

[hppygr8ful, ASN, RN, EMT-I]

Cdiff is really a pretty little bug those long filaments act like feet with velcrow that it uses to crawl around.

Hppy

[hppygr8ful, ASN, RN, EMT-I]

Or you can buy the stuffed toy.

hppy

[ruby_jane, BSN, RN]

hppygr8ful said:

Or you can buy the stuffed toy.

hppy

Frowning C. Diff disapproves of your glove and gown choices....

[Here.I.Stand, BSN, RN]

Please give me advice I'm planning to wear gloves at all times to protect my self as soap doesn't kill this spores.[/Quote]

Alcohol-based sanitizers (foam/gel) don't kill the spores; handwashing under running water removes them from our hands after removing gloves. "Flush 'em down the sink" is how our infection control RN puts it.

We typically put a glove over the end of the foam dispensers (I work in a hospital with a can of foam outside each door) to remind people "don't use this -- you have to wash the old-fashioned way."

[needlesmcgeeRN, ASN, RN]

Why do you feel it is your responsibility to bring this up to the owners of the facility? I am sure the medical professionals, i.e. the nurses are aware these residents have c. diff. and what precautions need to be taken.

Your responsibility is to take appropriate precautions as you complete your tasks.

[RNikkiF]

Soap and running water is the ONLY way to remove it from your hands. Bleach will kill the spores on hard surfaces. Make sure your residents wash their hands before eating, after toileting and before leaving their rooms. Everywhere I have worked, they use the "C"s. That patient is cognizant (alert and oriented... not confused), continent and contained (IF on the off chance the patient is incontinent, the accident is contained in a brief), they can leave their room. Check your facility policy and ask your employer for more education about c-diff. Stay off of Google, there's too much misinformation out there.