Did you contract anything from a patient?

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Silly question but I am just curious. I have never directly seen or heard of any healthcare workers I know contracting anything from a patient at work, and I am in frequent contact and air borne isolation. Obviously it happens, like the ebola RN I remember reading about, but have you ever seen anything in your facility?

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Specializes in Hematology-oncology.

Nurses may or may not have gotten flu or other respiratory bugs from patients. That kind of thing is hard to tell on (since there are so many people in stores, restaurants, etc. who are also sick).

I know of one co-worker who had a needle-stick injury from a known HIV patient. She was so anxious and upset that she had to see employee assistance. All of her testing came back negative, but she ended up leaving the healthcare field.

I personally have been in healthcare since the age of 14 (as a candy-striper)--so just over 20 years now. I had to have surgery last year, and was almost positive the MRSA nose swab during pre-op screening would come back positive. It didn't though, so I guess protective garb really dose work! :)

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Specializes in Psych (25 years), Medical (15 years).

Interesting question, RNrythm. No, I haven't but am interested in the replies.

However, I think I'm getting dementia from working with geriatric psych patients. Or it could be the aging process.

And I'm only partially kidding about this, too. It's like my Dad use to say: "It's hell to get old!"

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If I ever got a cold or the flu or other run of the mill infection, how would I know if I got it at work or at the grocery store, movie theater, airplane, or other place?

If your patient had a specific pneumonia, or a blood borne disease and you had a needle stick with accompanying testing, that would be easier to tie down. But in general, it would be hard to say for sure where you got it.

I recently got the flu. DH didn't have it, none of my patients had it (or they were in their incubation period), and no one I see outside of work had it. Who knows?

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Specializes in Pedi.

The flu and norovirus, yes I've heard of coworkers catching these from patients or other coworkers. I've not personally worked with anyone who contracted HIV or HSV from a patient but met a nurse while I was in school who did. (She was doing her PhD at the same school I was doing my BSN at and was TAing one of our classes.)

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Specializes in ICU, LTACH, Internal Medicine.

Flu (despite of using PPE)

MDR MRSA (which looked like classic sore throat case till cultures came back)

Asthma/allergy

Long time ago in my wild youth years there were rubella and pertussis. I also happily missed quite a few opportunities to get meningococcal infection, Tb and diphtheria.

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Specializes in Med-Surg/Neuro/Oncology floor nursing..
Nurses may or may not have gotten flu or other respiratory bugs from patients. That kind of thing is hard to tell on (since there are so many people in stores, restaurants, etc. who are also sick).

I know of one co-worker who had a needle-stick injury from a known HIV patient. She was so anxious and upset that she had to see employee assistance. All of her testing came back negative, but she ended up leaving the healthcare field.

I personally have been in healthcare since the age of 14 (as a candy-striper)--so just over 20 years now. I had to have surgery last year, and was almost positive the MRSA nose swab during pre-op screening would come back positive. It didn't though, so I guess protective garb really dose work! :)

I had a couple of co-workers get stuck with needles one from a HIV positive patient and one from a Hep C patient. Luckily they both came back negative. Both of them left direct bedside care as they were freaked out like your co-worker. I think both of them actually became school nurses.

As far as other things like a cold or the flu how can it be traced back to a patient for sure? When I've gotten a cold I was more likely to blame it on my train commute than any of my patients.

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Interesting question, RNrythm. No, I haven't but am interested in the replies.

However, I think I'm getting dementia from working with geriatric psych patients. Or it could be the aging process.

And I'm only partially kidding about this, too. It's like my Dad use to say: "It's hell to get old!"

Beats the alternative , dude ;)

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I did not contract anything that I can relate to. Isn't that why we use PPE?

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Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.

When I first started nursing as a student and working in the hospital (back in the early 80's) I seemed to catch every cold going. Once I got settled in the hospital setting everything calmed down down and every rarely did I catch anything and when I did I couldn't say that it was caught from work as could have easily caught cold from community

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Specializes in LTC, Rehab.

As someone else commented, you can't tell for sure most of the time where you contracted something, BUT: in my facility, we've had waves of flu, pneumonia, month-long colds, congestion, low O2, emesis, diarrhea, and I've had minor beginnings of some of these things 4-5 times in the past 6 weeks or so. I keep doing most things I can think of to ward them off and/or reduce length of symptoms, but as a cousin said, it's almost a miracle that I haven't been hit harder with something. There have been nurses and CNA's there who've had flu, bronchitis, pneumonia, colds...

Stay healthy out there!

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Specializes in Psych (25 years), Medical (15 years).
Beats the alternative , dude ;)

Well, that's a matter of contention...

I feel like I've been very very blessed, having had injuries by patients or been exposed to others' body fluids.

I've been a first responder multiple times, exposed to blood and vomit in my nose, mouth and eyes and have not contracted (knock on wood) any disease.

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