Ever get infection/ disease from a patient??

Nurses General Nursing

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After reading some of the Nursing "horror stories" thread about being pooped/ puked/ peed/ bled/ and ejaculated on, I was wondering if anyone has caught an infectious disease or illness from a patient before? Hopefully that stuff doesn't happen every day!!

Rhonda

In that particular facility the nurses were always wrong and the family were always right. The part timers kept telling the patient to get up and get moving because lying down all day wasn't going to speed up her recovery. We outlined our concerns to the family and management (who was a social worker) esp. the risk for pneumonia. Well, we were told off for our "scare tactics".

When you are the only nurse on the unit with one NA, you can't refuse care. We just wore the masks when we were the only ones around and the patient kept complaining.

We really should have got Occ. Health & Safety involved but the three of us knew we were moving on soon and took our chances.

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Very scary and cautionary story for all nurses.
ALWAYS file an injury/exposure report. You never know what may happen down the line.
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A lung infection that led to pleurisy.

Patient had a hacking cough in a sub-acute setting. The part-time staff were all acute care nurses working extra shifts there. So we set up a mask and hand wash set up outside her room. Management told us to take it down as it was making the patients family uncomfortable.

Night nurse came down with bronchitis, my alternate had a "severe lung infection" what her sick note said, and I wound up with a "lung infection" that later led to pleurisy.

Management denied we got the problems on their unit. They lost three good nurses that they've never been able to replace after that little incident.

Wow. :o That hospital would have had a major run-in with my lawyer over that one.

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Specializes in Community, OB, Nursery.

Haven't caught anything from a pt that I can trace back.

Catching colds/minor GI bugs etc., who really knows where they came from so I'm not counting those.

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Specializes in Pediatrics.

Nothing worse than RSV and stomach bugs (knock on wood...)

Those don't even count next to these other stories!

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right after we were married, dh jabbed himself with a needle from a patient with hiv and hepatitis c. (the patient's husband grabbed his arm just as he had drawn blood cultures from the patient.) wearing a condom until all the hiv tests came back (negative, thank god) ended our dream of having our own child. (i was 43 at the time.)

and dh was cleaning up a patient with c diff, and she had projectile diarrhea right in his face. he developed c diff which triggered ulcerative colitis. he nearly died before it was diagnosed! he was out of work (and without pay) for three months, taking oral vancomycin for the c diff. even with insurance, the vanco cost $297 per week. and this was 15 years ago! now he has to have colonoscopies every other year and takes 18 pills a day to control his c diff. because he hadn't filled out an incident report, he couldn't get workman's comp. bummer!

you should have gotten a lawyer.

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You most assuredly CAN refuse care. Tell the manager you are not able to give proper care without proper equipment and you are not going to do it. Do any necessary paperwork required to protest an assignment. Better yet, have all this figured out in advance by talking over various possible scenarios with a lawyer so you really know your rights.

If you are sick, you can't work. Nowhere in your contract or hiring papers does it say you have to put yourself in harm's way. So just tell your boss you are sick and need to leave and don't take "no" for an answer.

Police officers' first priority is to protect themselves. That might sound cold but they will do that before they protect or serve anyone. And why shouldn't they? They have lives, families outside of their job. Well, nurses have a desire and a perfect right to go home safe, too.

Ethics, guilt - these are where we trip up. Damn our passive, sacrificing natures!!!

That social worker manager needed to come breathe in that room for hours at a time if she expected you to do it and you guys should have just refused her directive to not use masks and keep handwashing convenient. You should have educated the family, not caved in to your idiot boss. Since when, anyway, do nurses work for social workers? Education and good sense would have been helpful here. Sorry if I sound critical but I am angered that you allowed this idiot boss to harm you and to cut off your efforts to do your job of educating the family.

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oh my! conjunctivitis ("pink eye") from a stroke patient i'd cared for all day whose wife mentioned at the end of my shift, "his eyes keep watering...". i warned the oncoming shift to be diligent with avoiding contact, etc. and called the in-house doc to evaluate immediately but later it turns out he was never seen.

i was crusty and miserable the very next morning, immediately called my boss to warn all other staff and make sure the patient got treated asap. i missed 3 days of work and in the end spent $90 out of my pocket for 2 visits to my primary care and for prescriptions.

ugh!:o

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Specializes in Hospital Education Coordinator.

got rotovirus from an infant. Note to self - no kissing on babies, regardless of how cute they are!

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Specializes in B.S. Psychology.
got rotovirus from an infant. Note to self - no kissing on babies, regardless of how cute they are!

Ha, I know what you mean. I am guilty of that myself. :)

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Got a very nasty pneumonia from a patient about 13 years ago. No way to prove it though.

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right after we were married, dh jabbed himself with a needle from a patient with hiv and hepatitis c. (the patient's husband grabbed his arm just as he had drawn blood cultures from the patient.) wearing a condom until all the hiv tests came back (negative, thank god) ended our dream of having our own child. (i was 43 at the time.)

and dh was cleaning up a patient with c diff, and she had projectile diarrhea right in his face. he developed c diff which triggered ulcerative colitis. he nearly died before it was diagnosed! he was out of work (and without pay) for three months, taking oral vancomycin for the c diff. even with insurance, the vanco cost $297 per week. and this was 15 years ago! now he has to have colonoscopies every other year and takes 18 pills a day to control his c diff. because he hadn't filled out an incident report, he couldn't get workman's comp. bummer!

thirteen years ago my husband got stuck with a needle after inserting an iv in a pregnant woman in labor who had aids. the needle "jumped" out of the sharps container and went deep in his finger. he took the propholactic meds for 6 weeks(made him sick) and he was also negative. our first child was 5 days old. what a horrible experience that was. we sued the maker of the sharps container(and won). the design was faulty.

things can get very scary out there, we have to be cautious at all times.

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