Did you contract anything from a patient?

[RNrhythm]

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?

[OldDude]

My Sweet Petunia worked in a rehab facility for a few years, she brought home scabies a couple times. She loves me so much she shared them with me.

[sallyrnrrt, ADN, RN]

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?

I got acquired immunity to hepatitis B, without getting the infection

& Bangs, ( undulant fever) from a crazied cow attack, which I arrested or treated with five ultraviolet blood treatments, rather than the 6-8 weeks treatment with some strong antibiotics.....

[sallyrnrrt, ADN, RN]

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

We did not always use pPE in 70's

[Pepper The Cat, BSN, RN]

We had several staff members contract SARS during the early days of the epidemic when we did ‘t Know what we were dealing with.

Scary times.

[RNNPICU, BSN, RN]

I know I have gotten a bad cold/flu that was all respiratory in nature. Had to even call out one day because it rally hurt to cough and breath. So many people were sick at the time with similar symptoms. Hard to say whether it was at work or from walking outside, going to the store, using public transportation etc. I rarely get sick, but that was a doozy though. I was able to work, but felt like c##p for a good two weeks.

[Davey Do]

My Sweet Petunia worked in a rehab facility for a few years, she brought home scabies a couple times. She loves me so much she shared them with me.

Oooooooh! How sweet!

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[brillohead, ADN, RN]

I'm the least compliant PPE-wearer on our unit because our gowns are basically plastic garbage bags that make me sweat like a one-ton man running a marathon. Plus, my facility is overly-restrictive on what they patients into isolation, including putting people in a higher isolation level than the CDC recommends.

Never got anything from a patient that I know of, but I do get the occasional cold.

Had multiple patients with flu, RSV, and coronavirus this season -- haven't gotten anything myself, even without the garbage bag gowns. But then, I am vigilant about hand-washing.

[poppycat, ADN, BSN]

I got influenza A from my patient in January.

[blondy2061h, MSN, RN]

I got norovirus in clinicals in college. I ended up in the hospital for several days (type 1 diabetes). My professor told me no way I got it at clinicals even though two of my patients two days before I got sick had it. However, she didn't apply the normal absentee policy to my missed clinicals while I was hospitalized.

At work I know I've given my patients strep before. I volunteered as a camp nurse. Sent something like 7 campers home with high fevers. The camp later called me and said they all ended up having step throat. I went back to work feeling fine. The next day came my high fever. Sure enough. Step throat. When I came back to work I discovered one of the patients I had the one night I worked now had positive blood cultures with strep. I felt awful.

[amoLucia]

I got scabies (had an in-house pt with scabies).

I became MRSA colonized. I developed mononucleosis with Epstein-Barr. Both of unknown sources.

A family member contracted Hep B in the days before gloving precautions was as prominent as it is today. And the hosp couldn't identify any in-house pt as Hep B+ so they denied responsibility.

[hppygr8ful, ASN, RN, EMT-I]

I got cellulitis when a psych patient scratched my leg during a take down. I guess it's true that you never know where someone's hands have been.

Hppygr8ful

[Dakeirus]

I've been lucky in the ICU since we are generally exposed to everything. I can tell you though that I've lost my mind (or more like burnout) a few times working in the unit.