contageous diseases in hospitals or nursing homes

TazziRN, RN · May 20, 2006

By using universal precautions: with all pts we wear gloves when there is contact with body fluids, we utilize good handwashing, use masks with coughing pts, etc.

snowfreeze, BSN, RN · May 20, 2006

Wash your hands, wear gloves, follow isolation guidelines as posted. All diseases and communicable infections happen outside the hospital also. Scabies may be brought in by one patient but at the end of the week 5 or more patients on that unit may have scabies. That is directly related to not following universal precautions. I assume everyone has everything, I have not contracted more than an occasional common cold in my 15 years of being a nurse.

Remember, sick people come to a hospital not well ones.

roses4mom · May 22, 2006

So what happens if a CNA/nurse gets sick on the job or contracts scabies on the job? I know most hospitals are very strict with regard to days off, etc...so is she supposed to report to work and jsut wear gloves even though she has scabies or is sick? Just curious.

Thank you :idea:

luvmy2angels · May 22, 2006

By using universal precautions: with all pts we wear gloves when there is contact with body fluids, we utilize good handwashing, use masks with coughing pts, etc.

:yeahthat: :yeahthat: :yeahthat: :yeahthat: :yeahthat: and wash your hands, wash your hands, wash your hands!!!

TazziRN, RN · May 22, 2006

So what happens if a CNA/nurse gets sick on the job or contracts scabies on the job? I know most hospitals are very strict with regard to days off, etc...so is she supposed to report to work and jsut wear gloves even though she has scabies or is sick? Just curious.
Thank you

I'm not sure what you're getting at. If it's bad enough to where you HAVE to stay home and it can be traced to a source patient, you could probably claim work comp. Scabies is not stay-home-able....you get treated, you wear gloves, you wash your hands religiously, and you work. I have seen MANY patients with scabies over the years and have never caught it from them. For things like colds, you wash your hands before and after patient contact, you don't cough in their direction, you make sure they cough in their hands/tissue/elbow, etc.

ragincajunstudent · May 22, 2006

yea washing your hands and making sure your not cross contaminating your patients. i just finished my clinicals and we had 8 pts with MRSA, on one floor. and you can only wonder how it got to so many on one floor.

Just wondering · May 22, 2006

Hi
I am thinking about going to school to be a CNA and later, hopefully, an RN. I was wondering how nurses protect themselves from contageous diseases in hospitals such as staph infections (from hand-to-hand contact I believe) and or scabies in nursing homes. What are the legal parameters concerning these issues. Any help would be appreciated

First, :welcome:.

When you start your CNA you will be taught over and over about precautions and preventions. There is a chain of infection and there are ways to break it. I wouldn't worry too much on being exposed at work place b/c once you learn the ropes of prevention your risks will be decreased. I'd rather worry about outside the work place then inside. Atleast in, it can be indentifiable and treated. Outside, you have 'em all. For instances, the shopping carts at the store, do you know how many people touch one cart? or the pen you may borrow at the register when you sign your credit card receipt. How about the veggie that other people pick up to choose and put it back b/c it wasn't appealing. Bacteria can mutate, nowadays, they are everywhere.

As far as the work place, I think it would be hard to challenge that what you have acquired, you got it at work. The only way to justify that you got the bug from work is if you have an out break (or atleast that's one way I know). I worked at a nursing home and there was an out break of diarrhea. Needless to say, it wasn't pleasant we all know it's nosocomial. And there is risks with where I worked, the elderly with weakened immunity were compromised..

When you finish your school for CNA and seek for employment at a Health Care Center, you will be inserviced with education over and over, and over......Good luck.

Just Me