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?

[evastone, BSN, RN]

Hmmm, let me see...

Needle stick while I was pregnant, bloody urine (clots and all) splashed all over my clothes- also during that pregnancy, exposed to lice, flu exposure (no mask donned) several times during every shift this year...Never caught anything that I know of from a patient.

I did, however, catch Coxsackie from my child. Good times.

[Daisy Joyce]

I can't trace anything to one particular patient, but my first year of clinical, and then my first year working, I was repeatedly sick with fevers, vomiting, URI, whatever.

Then my first nursing home job I had a low-level, nonfebrile, stuffy nose/scratchy throat combo for about three weeks, them a few years later changed to another LTC and the same thing happened (maybe I was building immunity to the ambient "normal flora" of those facilities?)

Now I do LTC and school nursing and agency for the last few years and for some reason I started out fine, but this past year I've been repeatedly sick again ...

[NICUmiiki, DNP, NP]

When I worked in the ER, I caught a cold from a sick little girl I held and played with.

It was worth it.

[prmenrs, RN]

Does a really bad attitude and a sarcastic sense of humor count?

[Horseshoe, BSN, RN]

I have been DIRECTLY exposed to strep at least 20 times. My sister got strep practically every other month. My kids had it numerous times. I've drank after an infected family member or friend (before I knew they had it), kissed my kids or DH the evening before they experienced morning symptoms, been in the line of fire of coughs and sneezes from infected persons, etc., and I have never had it. I don't understand how I've managed to avoid it after so many exposures.

[Kayauhs]

Pink eye and don't ask me how. I'm a germaphobe and wash my hands religiously. Doctor said it could have been on my scrub top and when I pulled my top off...Bizarre.

[FSZ Student Nurse, RN]

I have been DIRECTLY exposed to strep at least 20 times. My sister got strep practically every other month. My kids had it numerous times. I've drank after an infected family member or friend (before I knew they had it), kissed my kids or DH the evening before they experienced morning symptoms, been in the line of fire of coughs and sneezes from infected persons, etc., and I have never had it. I don't understand how I've managed to avoid it after so many exposures.

Maybe you are a strep carrier, and therefor can't "contract" it again?

I remember learning in micro that a large percentage of the population are carriers.

ETA: I believe carriers are unlikely to spread strep to others, so they wouldn't be the source of the infection. But, they do test positive for strep, yet remain asymptomatic.

[ruby_jane, BSN, RN]

Does a really bad attitude and a sarcastic sense of humor count?

You are my spirit animal...I wanted to say this but you said it first!

[jobellestarr]

I had a coworker that had a needle stick and contracted Hep C. I saw her when she came in for some paperwork and definitely looked like she was in liver failure.

I once had a patient that was an ED nurse who had contracted C Diff from a patient and she was very ill.

[Jamesdotter]

In nursing school one of my classmates converted to TB positive. She was treated rather aggressively.

[ruralnurse84]

I had a guy in for gastroenteritis (frankly something that should have stayed home but we admitted him for dehydration, insert eye roll) and wouldn't you know I was puking and had a fever the next day myself. Thankfully it was only a 24 hour bug, but it was miserable and I had to call out for two nights. I can put up with head colds, but stomach bugs are a nightmare and I am very susceptible to those.

[meanmaryjean, DNP, RN]

Cooties