Do you get sick alot working as a nurse?

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It seems like it goes both ways. Some people seem to think nurses have this incredible immune system and rarely get sick and other like my self think they would get sick more often because they are exposed to more?

What do you think or has your experience been?

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I'm rarely sick, but then I was rarely sick before nursing school as well. It would seem to me that I should have built up a decent immune response based on the sheer number of exposures I have day after day.

I don't know if anything would be different if I wasn't a nurse, but I AM glad it's working out the way it is! :)

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Specializes in Pediatrics.

Worked for 3 yrs as an ED tech in nursing school, have been a pediatric nurse for 4 of my 5 years as being a nurse.

almost every time I have gotten sick it has been from my own little germ factories that live at my house. As their mother I will cuddle them and get all their germs.

At work I protect myself with some PPE.

I do think that over time nurses do build up an immune system, and I think that most nurses are colonized to some of the big bads, I bet if you swabbed a bunch of nurses noses the majority would been MRSA positive

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Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

Rarely. My immune system seems to never have been better than since the time I became a nurse.

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No but my patient population doesn't expose me to many viruses.

I was sick a lot more often when my kids were young.

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Specializes in School nursing.

Rarely. I work as a school nurse with germs galore around me and limited protection beyond gloving, hand washing, cleaning my office all the time (I do have masks I can wear when something is rampant). We had a fierce stomach bug this Fall, but I avoided it. However, I also rarely got sick before I became a nurse.

Now I am going to go knock on some wood. You know...just in case...

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I rarely get sick since being a nurse. Prior to being a nurse it seemed like I was always sick.

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No, but I will still take my sick days.

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Specializes in Anesthesia, ICU, PCU.

I get "sick" for two days, no more than three times in a rolling six month period. I don't get sick on weekends. I don't get sick on scheduled work days immediately preceding or following paid time off. ;)

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Never gotten sick from anything at work either. Many of our patient are here for cancer surgeries, trauma or transplant surgery. Yes, some patients do get infections related to lines or pneumonias as a post-op complication. I don't think I am at any elevated risk and always use standard precautions.

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Specializes in SICU, trauma, neuro.

I get sick a lot from living w/ five petri dishes...I mean children. Just when I think I've gotten it all, those viruses up and mutate.

Nursing, not so much. We see our fair share of MRSA, MDROs, C. diff etc, but I don't work in a pt population hospitalized for infectious diseases.

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Specializes in Medical Oncology, Alzheimer/dementia.

It seems like I got sick a lot more when I worked in urgent care and as a school nurse. Those darn kids and their germs :eek: Since I've been working with adults, I rarely get sick. Sometimes I feel like I have a constant stuffy nose, but I think it's my sinuses.

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