Did you contract anything from a patient?

Nurses General Nursing

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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?

Specializes in pediatrics; PICU; NICU.
Cooties

I played several games of "Cootie" with my grandson this weekend!

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RSV and Mycoplasma pneumonia. AT THE SAME TIME! They wanted to intubated me but I refused.

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RSV and Mycoplasma pneumonia. AT THE SAME TIME! They wanted to intubated me but I refused.

Just curious about why you refused. I have a DNR agreement with my husband (and in my legal documents) that I am not to be intubated if terminally ill, but would agree to intubation if I have a curable disease and just need it to get through a crisis. If intubation could save your life, you still refuse? Or did you just think it wasn't indicated at that time?

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Just curious about why you refused. I have a DNR agreement with my husband (and in my legal documents) that I am not to be intubated if terminally ill, but would agree to intubation if I have a curable disease and just need it to get through a crisis. If intubation could save your life, you still refuse? Or did you just think it wasn't indicated at that time?

Because I was certain as the sun rises and sets that I would get ARDS. I told them that as long as I was conscious and mentating that I would fight on my own but at the point where I was neither then they could tube me. It was ugly for a few days but I made it. This was before Bi-Pap which I would have agreed to.

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Because I was certain as the sun rises and sets that I would get ARDS. I told them that as long as I was conscious and mentating that I would fight on my own but at the point where I was neither then they could tube me. It was ugly for a few days but I made it. This was before Bi-Pap which I would have agreed to.

Sounds reasonable to me! So glad you recovered without the need for intubation. No one wants that unless it's absolutely necessary.

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Specializes in Critical Care and ED.

Not directly from a patient, but years ago I walked into an ER trolley and the brake cut my leg. I got MRSA in it and it wouldn't heal so I ended up doing surgery on myself with a scalpel to let it drain. healed eventually but I have a scar. Probably should have seen a doctor, eh?

Last year, after I got the flu shot, I started clinicals in a new ICU and within a week and a half I got the flu. I was in bed for 2 weeks. That was the sickest I've ever been. I literally couldn't stand. I can see how that kills so easily now. Never again.

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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.

It used to drive me nuts on a Med Surg floor when we would put someone in isolation because they tested positive for MRSA years before.

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Specializes in Palliative, Onc, Med-Surg, Home Hospice.
RSV and Mycoplasma pneumonia. AT THE SAME TIME! They wanted to intubated me but I refused.

Wow, glad you recovered. And I completely understand why you wouldn't want to be intubated. It's not exactly high on my list of priorities. Fortunately, BiPap has helped me!

I might have gotten mycoplasma pneumonia from a patient I cared for. we weren't aware that she had pneumonia so she wasn't on precautions. I got sick not long after that.

I recently got the flu from a resident in LTC when I went to visit one of my hospice patients. The only exposure I had and a few days later, I got sick.

I also got the flu from an RT, who was hacking up a lung when she gave me my breathing treatment. Found out a couple of days later she had the flu. And of course, I got sick. (I was in the hospital for asthma exacerbation)

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Specializes in Cardio-Pulmonary; Med-Surg; Private Duty.
It used to drive me nuts on a Med Surg floor when we would put someone in isolation because they tested positive for MRSA years before.

Don't get me started on that subject!

For example, if someone has MRSA in the blood but no open wounds, we still put them in contact precautions. WHY???? Remember the whole HIV/AIDS thing and the development of STANDARD precautions to protect healthcare workers from blood-borne diseases? If standard precautions protect us from contact with HIV-infected blood, why won't they protect us from contact with MRSA-infected blood?

Our facility did at least change policy in the last year so that if someone has a history of MRSA in the past, the nurses can do the nasal swab and remove them from isolation when it comes back negative. However, it's not a standard work practice -- someone has to take the initiative to realize it's not an active infection, place the order for the swab in the computer (doesn't need a provider, a nurse is allowed to do it), then collect / label / send the specimen. Which means when I get a patient who has been admitted for a week and in contact precautions for a history of MRSA ten years ago, *I* am the one who sends the specimen, which then takes up to a full day to come back.

I'm not the only nurse who hates putting on the Hefty bag gowns, so why am I the only nurse who sends a specimen to remove the patient from isolation????

Like I said, don't get me started.....

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Don't get me started on that subject!

For example, if someone has MRSA in the blood but no open wounds, we still put them in contact precautions. WHY???? Remember the whole HIV/AIDS thing and the development of STANDARD precautions to protect healthcare workers from blood-borne diseases? If standard precautions protect us from contact with HIV-infected blood, why won't they protect us from contact with MRSA-infected blood?

Our facility did at least change policy in the last year so that if someone has a history of MRSA in the past, the nurses can do the nasal swab and remove them from isolation when it comes back negative. However, it's not a standard work practice -- someone has to take the initiative to realize it's not an active infection, place the order for the swab in the computer (doesn't need a provider, a nurse is allowed to do it), then collect / label / send the specimen. Which means when I get a patient who has been admitted for a week and in contact precautions for a history of MRSA ten years ago, *I* am the one who sends the specimen, which then takes up to a full day to come back.

I'm not the only nurse who hates putting on the Hefty bag gowns, so why am I the only nurse who sends a specimen to remove the patient from isolation????

Like I said, don't get me started.....

We needed three documented negatives before we were allowed to not place someone in isolation. I remember working one night where literally 10 out of 12 patients were on some variety of isolation. If

It was Hospital practice to MRSA swab every patient on admission. Problem was if a patient answered yes to the "Have you ever been diagnosed with MRSA?" They were automatically placed in isolation until they had three negative MRSA swabs. Meaning three separate hospitalizations at our hospital because really who's going to track down everyone's MRSA swabs from other hospitals. Sometimes I swear people lied just to be put in isolation and made to feel like special snowflakes.

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Specializes in Cardio-Pulmonary; Med-Surg; Private Duty.
Sometimes I swear people lied just to be put in isolation and made to feel like special snowflakes.

Our rooms are all private, so they don't get special treatment -- just staff that hates going into their room dressed in garbage bags!

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Only from my coworkers who don't stay home when sick, and then spread their germs all over the breakroom...

I've started wiping everything down before I eat lunch (along with the standard hand hygiene). So sick of catching whatever junk people bring from home.

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