Survey Update......Survey is now closed. Please go to Survey Results to see the response from the allnurses community.
Once again, it is a nurse who has taken the Ebola media spotlight this week. Kaci Hickox, a nurse who cared for Ebola patients in Sierra Leone found herself quarantined against her will in New Jersey upon her return to the US, in spite of the fact that she tested negative for the virus. After a 3 day isolation in less than desirable accommodations, she was transported home where she was supposed to remain under home quarantine but is now declaring that the quarantine is unnecessary and counterproductive, and is openly defying the order by going out in public.
Additional breaches in voluntary quarantine from those returning from Ebola-plagued Africa occurred when NBC medical correspondent, Dr. Nancy Snyderman in New Jersey and Dr. Craig Spencer in New York left their homes and ventured out into public spaces.
On Monday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) called for voluntary home quarantine for workers with the highest risk for Ebola infection. It also specified that most medical personnel returning from Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea would not need to be kept in isolation.
In spite of this, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, mandated a 21-day mandatory quarantine policy for all healthcare workers exposed to Ebola. Although this move has received much criticism, it did get the support of Dr. Bruce Beutler, an American doctor and researcher and Nobel Prize winner for Medicine and Physiology for his work researching the the body’s overall immune system. He is currently the Director of the Center for the Genetics of Host Defense at the University of Texas Southwestern Center in Dallas. He favors Christie’s quarantine policy “because it’s not entirely clear that they can’t transmit the disease,” referring to asymptomatic healthcare workers like Kaci Hickox.
New York and Illinois have also have followed suit and mandated mandatory 21-day home quarantine policies. Although there is plenty of scientific evidence indicating there’s very little chance that a random person will contract Ebola unless they touch bodily fluids of an infected person, the thought is that the authorities need to do something to calm Americans’ fears. As Mike Osterholm, an infectious disease epidemiologist at the University of Minnesota, says, "You want to try to eliminate not just real risk, but perceived risk."
There are thoughts on both sides of this issue which has led to heated discussions at times. There are concerns about the potential impact with both pathways of re-entry requirements for Ebola healthcare workers. What are your thoughts about this? Please take our survey to share your opinions. Let your voice be heard.
Specializes in NICU, PICU, Transport, L&D, Hospice.
I don't believe that it is making a negative outlook on nurses, but I do believe that it will confuse those who don't know anything about healthcare. So many people are oblivious as to how to take care of themselves and are associating EBOLA with just.. death. I believe that as nurses the main thing is to educate your patient... even before they become your "patient". Prior to this event even taking place, my personal opinion is to keep those that have been exposed, quarantined for 3-4 weeks and be carefully monitored so that symptoms can be treated right away. Nurse, doctor, patient, passerby, whatever your position... protect yourself and everyone around you.
So you believe that every health professional who has had any contact with these patients in the USA should be quarantined for 21-28 days even if they are not symptomatic?
Does that quarantine begin at hour one of their care for the patient?
Will they be paid for their lost time at work?
Who will take care of their children, their pets, and their personal activities while they are being held in quarantine?
Where will we quarantine them and what happens to the folks who interact with then during the quarantine?
How is unnecessarily isolating people protecting anyone?
I don't believe that it is making a negative outlook on nurses, but I do believe that it will confuse those who don't know anything about healthcare. So many people are oblivious as to how to take care of themselves and are associating EBOLA with just.. death. I believe that as nurses the main thing is to educate your patient... even before they become your "patient". Prior to this event even taking place, my personal opinion is to keep those that have been exposed, quarantined for 3-4 weeks and be carefully monitored so that symptoms can be treated right away. Nurse, doctor, patient, passerby, whatever your position... protect yourself and everyone around you.
Don't you think the comment that, you " do believe that it will confuse those who don't know anything about healthcare" is negative….? It is making a negative impact on nurses and even other healthcare professionals and the public as a whole. I came back yesterday from work and my hubby said i should wash my hands first even before touching anything..lolzz… A home health nurse i know was told her services are no longer needed recently because they want to be sure when grandma is sick, where it's coming from… this is a nurse who worked with this family for over 5 yrs and was their best choice. They want someone who is there the whole time and does not have a second hospital job. Not sure where they would get that nurse but i know the public needs to be educated but certainly not the way nurse Kaci is doing it. Everything we do as healthcare workers impacts other people. Perception is very powerful, believe it or not….
That's just it. At this time she isn't a danger but who's to say down the road she doesn't start having symptoms. Then the authorities will have to track down all the people she came into contact. Seems to me that a 21 day self quarantine is not much to ask in the big picture. She's an arrogant and self entitled woman.
If she becomes symptomatic down the road she can then be quarantined. She has tested negative twice so far and has had no symptoms.
I'm a huge supporter of Kaci, but I do believe she is having a negative impact on public perception of nurses. I think the media needs to do a better job of explaining her rationale.
Exactly this. I live in Maine and people are being VERY nasty towards her. It makes me sad that people don't understand.
I think if I were her I'd probably just do the 21 days to get people off my back and avoid the negative press, but that doesn't make her wrong.
Don't you think the comment that, you " do believe that it will confuse those who don't know anything about healthcare" is negative....? It is making a negative impact on nurses and even other healthcare professionals and the public as a whole. I came back yesterday from work and my hubby said i should wash my hands first even before touching anything..lolzz... A home health nurse i know was told her services are no longer needed recently because they want to be sure when grandma is sick, where it's coming from... this is a nurse who worked with this family for over 5 yrs and was their best choice. They want someone who is there the whole time and does not have a second hospital job. Not sure where they would get that nurse but i know the public needs to be educated but certainly not the way nurse Kaci is doing it. Everything we do as healthcare workers impacts other people. Perception is very powerful, believe it or not....
I'm not sure that Kaci isn't trying to educate. She's being unfairly portrayed in the press. When there are disgusting ignorant creeps in the press like Piers Morgan and Sean Hannity who haven't spent a day in their lives not doing something for personal gain telling people that she's selfish they believe them. Piers Morgan and Sean Hannity have their own forums and reasons for doing so. I heard a perfectly well composed piece on NPR today that educated listeners that ebola may not show up in initial blood samples even if a person has it but they are assymptomatic. I also heard that the elevated temperature or fever is key and there would still be time for an infected person to isolate before they began to vomit or become contagious in public.
I am not sure why it is so hard to find actual facts in the media. Other than reporting actual facts doesn't make for "news entertainment" or high viewership or clickbait.
I also had a patient ask me if I'd been to Africa this afternoon. I work home health and most of my patients are home bound and live on a diet of cable news.
My brain keeps relating everything it hears about Ebola to our two neighbors who will be held in quarantine when they return from Africa where they spent nearly six weeks working with other physicians, with Doctors Without Borders. They give a month of their time every year to that program and Ebola would not be seen as a reason to stop. They have already stayed two weeks longer than originally scheduled because of the Ebola scare and when they do come home, they will undoubtedly face a quarantine just in case they brought the scourge home with them.
If it is so important to quarantine these ebola care takers then shouldn't we have quarantined all the NIH staff that took care Nina Pham? How exactly would that work, if we quarantine all healthcare that care of ebola patients? Do we let the healthcare workers take care of ebola patient(s) for one shift then go on a mandatory 21 days of home quarantine or do we make them stay in quarantine in the hospital and only let them out to take of ebola patients?
The other thing is how are healthcare workers that come back from Africa at a higher risk of spreading ebola than a healthcare worker in the U.S. that took care of an ebola patient?
If it is so important to quarantine these ebola care takers then shouldn't we have quarantined all the NIH staff that took care Nina Pham? How exactly would that work, if we quarantine all healthcare that care of ebola patients? Do we let the healthcare workers take care of ebola patient(s) for one shift then go on a mandatory 21 days of home quarantine or do we make them stay in quarantine in the hospital and only let them out to take of ebola patients?
The other thing is how are healthcare workers that come back from Africa at a higher risk of spreading ebola than a healthcare worker in the U.S. that took care of an ebola patient?
YES!!!!!! oh absolutely (sarcasm).
And every lab worker that touches a specimen, every housekeeper that walks near. We should also probably burn every x-ray machine that goes near the patient, well, all the equipment really. The room really. Strip everything down to the studs.
Actually, we should probably just ship the victims back to where they caught the infection. It would probably be cheaper than managing each patient and burning all the supplies and placing all their caretakers on 21 day lockdown. EMTALA be darned, this is a public health emergency!!!!!!
Wait, is every American physician that touches an Ebola patient (Dr. Spencer right now I guess) on 21 day quarantine, unable to see any other patients until 21 days after their last contact (i.e., probably no physician has touched him since he was diagnosed)?
There are times, like this, when I get disappointed in nursing/nurses. Nursing is the most trusted profession: this is an opportunity for nurses everywhere to demonstrate their education, experience, and knowledge of the scientific process and assist in quelling the fear-mongering and sensationalism of the media. Instead, many nurses are demonstrating a complete lack of understanding and contributing to the fire rather than extinguishing it.
I would venture a guess that the nurses taking care of ebola patients in U.S. are facing social stigma from fellow co-workers and others afraid that they are going to pass ebola to them or their patients.
I would like to know how many healthcare workers and other volunteers who worked in those countries affected by the Ebola virus have been wandering around this country un-quarantined and without public scorn BEFORE Thomas Eric Duncan came into the spotlight.
I live in Maine, too and one of the nastiest post I have read about Kaci was from a nurse (whom I respect greatly) whose daughter is a student near where Kaci and her boyfriend are living now. Would I feel different if my loved ones were in the general vicinity of Kaci? I honestly don't know. There is so much information out there. It is frustrating for me, as a nurse who understands disease process, let alone John/Jane Q. Public who is hearing conflicting information from "reputable" sources.
I would like to know how many healthcare workers and other volunteers who worked in those countries affected by the Ebola virus have been wandering around this country un-quarantined and without public scorn BEFORE Thomas Eric Duncan came into the spotlight.
MSF reports they have had over 700 international volunteers work with Ebola patients in West Africa, only three have tested positive and so far (awaiting results from Dr. Spencer's contacts) none have transmitted the disease to others.
21 of their exposed HCW were nationals working in the area where they lived and their exposure was traced to non-work related contact with Ebola patients. I do not know if they passed the disease to their contacts, but it would probably be difficult to track that down as they were believed to have gotten their infections in their communities.
None of MSF's other volunteers have ever been quarantined if they never had a significant exposure (exposure without PPE, needlestick). . . Until Kaci
toomuchbaloney
16,031 Posts
So you believe that every health professional who has had any contact with these patients in the USA should be quarantined for 21-28 days even if they are not symptomatic?
Does that quarantine begin at hour one of their care for the patient?
Will they be paid for their lost time at work?
Who will take care of their children, their pets, and their personal activities while they are being held in quarantine?
Where will we quarantine them and what happens to the folks who interact with then during the quarantine?
How is unnecessarily isolating people protecting anyone?