Exposed to patient positive with coronavirus

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I was taking care of a patient who I admitted as a R/O caronavirus. The patient was admitted In respiratory distress and started on bipap. The patient became acutely confused and started tearing off his bipap. At the time, we were out of masks as they are being locked up in our directors office and the charge nurse was on her way to obtain another box or n95s. I watched as my patients sat dropped from 98 to 80.. to 73.. knowing the patient was RO I entered the room to place bipap back on the patient. (I instantly reported the exposure to my charge nurse who pretty much shrugged it off saying ‘hey probably doesn’t have it anyways’’. He then started to decompensate cardiovascular wise for me... blood pressure kept dropping and heart rate spiked into the 140s sinus. He ended up getting a liter or albumin plus another two liters of NS and started on Levo. I was able to stabilize him throughout the night until morning, gave report and went home.. .. when I came back that next night I found out he passed away on day shift. Fast forward a few day’s and I find out his test came back positive for coronavirus.

I talked to my clinical manager about what I’m supposed to do since I had an exposure with a known positive and their response was along the lines of.. no you can’t be tested and yes you still need to come to work until you show symptoms. This is madness... I feel like if I come to work I’ll be exposing the whole ICU to this virus but I fear the repercussions If I Call out.

My hospital is just using surgical masks for Covid patients unless you are in the ICU or doing certain procedures that could introduce deeper secretions into the air.

So yeah, It's been interesting taking care of patients who are likely positive, some of whom turned out to be positive later. At this point it seems extremely likely I and others are going to get it, but you gotta do what you gotta do I guess.

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Specializes in geriatric/ surgical nsg.

Hi

I'm working in Rehab nursing home and we are not getting many post-op right now but the unit is being prepared for our own residents who would be admitted with covid-19, or those from the nursing home LTC for observation, the thing is we have this resident who had her pacemaker battery changed and has been in and out the hospital for 2-3 times, we were thinking she will be on isolation as she develop sepsis (and probably been exposed to the dif. staff in the hosp. with known cases of covid-19) but she wasn't put on isolation or even for observation...the mgt. doesn't want us staff to use any mask on as it will "create fear to other resident" so, hope and pray that we won't be exposed...yeah out PPE are being locked too.

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Specializes in Dialysis.
7 hours ago, gemivrn said:

Hi

I'm working in Rehab nursing home and we are not getting many post-op right now but the unit is being prepared for our own residents who would be admitted with covid-19, or those from the nursing home LTC for observation, the thing is we have this resident who had her pacemaker battery changed and has been in and out the hospital for 2-3 times, we were thinking she will be on isolation as she develop sepsis (and probably been exposed to the dif. staff in the hosp. with known cases of covid-19) but she wasn't put on isolation or even for observation...the mgt. doesn't want us staff to use any mask on as it will "create fear to other resident" so, hope and pray that we won't be exposed...yeah out PPE are being locked too.

I'm so tired of hearing about managers who don't want to create fear. They will be the first to stay home and leave staff in the lurch. They don't realize that they will kill their staff and patients, but by golly no one will feel any fear, until it's too late ?

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Specializes in CCU.

I was told the same after potentially being exposed but, I now have to wear a surgical mask all the time (as long as we have them, I guess) and have to check my temp every day :-/ My patient was there for different reasons unrelated to Covid-19 for several days and developed symptoms while in the hospital so we were all exposed pretty much. And I can't see how it could've been avoided unless everyone is suspected to have it from the start. Good luck!

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don't keep going back to work..obviously, they don't care if you come down with it..take a family medical leave act or just call off sick. Take care of yourself! You may be out of a job, but you won't lose your license! Take care!

On 3/20/2020 at 11:24 PM, IRN2011 said:

I was taking care of a patient who I admitted as a R/O caronavirus. The patient was admitted In respiratory distress and started on bipap. The patient became acutely confused and started tearing off his bipap. At the time, we were out of masks as they are being locked up in our directors office and the charge nurse was on her way to obtain another box or n95s. I watched as my patients sat dropped from 98 to 80.. to 73.. knowing the patient was RO I entered the room to place bipap back on the patient. (I instantly reported the exposure to my charge nurse who pretty much shrugged it off saying ‘hey probably doesn’t have it anyways’’. He then started to decompensate cardiovascular wise for me... blood pressure kept dropping and heart rate spiked into the 140s sinus. He ended up getting a liter or albumin plus another two liters of NS and started on Levo. I was able to stabilize him throughout the night until morning, gave report and went home.. .. when I came back that next night I found out he passed away on day shift. Fast forward a few day’s and I find out his test came back positive for coronavirus.

I talked to my clinical manager about what I’m supposed to do since I had an exposure with a known positive and their response was along the lines of.. no you can’t be tested and yes you still need to come to work until you show symptoms. This is madness... I feel like if I come to work I’ll be exposing the whole ICU to this virus but I fear the repercussions If I Call out.

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Quote

yes you still need to come to work until you show symptoms

Your manager is a jerk and an idiot. Mechanical ventilation causes aerosolization, and anyone who has been awake at any point in the last month knows you can be asymptomatic for quite some time after contracting the virus. Hopefully you can get tested by your PCP and if you are positive, maybe that can at least keep you from getting in trouble for calling out. Unfortunately, your manager's stupidity likely cannot be cured. Above all, make sure you take care of yourself, and remember, there's no emergency during a pandemic.

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One addendum to my previous reply: a lot of hospitals are scrambling to fill positions and offering crisis pay right now. So as far as getting in trouble for calling out, if they fire you first thing in the morning you could almost certainly have a couple more jobs lined up by lunchtime.

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That is madness alright. We all know that this is transmittable in the early, asymptomatic stage.

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Specializes in geriatric/ surgical nsg.

Exactly, just checked in my SNF website to know the latest announcement in the nursing home where I'm working, the resident who was Covid-19 positive from our independent living/cottage that was hospitalized few days ago died in the hospital today, and we have one PUI in our unit right now, this is becoming really alarming.

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On 3/27/2020 at 10:11 PM, rescueninja1987 said:

One addendum to my previous reply: a lot of hospitals are scrambling to fill positions and offering crisis pay right now. So as far as getting in trouble for calling out, if they fire you first thing in the morning you could almost certainly have a couple more jobs lined up by lunchtime.

Not all! Many places have cut nurses’ hours and even laid off nurses. Unless you are in a “hotspot,” there might not even be work for the people already working there! I was called off two of my last three shifts.

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Specializes in geriatric/ surgical nsg.

beekee,

I'm assigned at rehab SNF, in one of the nursing home and since the elective surgeries are being put on hold during this time of Covid-19 pandemic we are not receiving many patients from the hospital, so normally we only have 2 staff ( 2 RNs) 7-8 patients/residents in the unit, the management said we don't need a CNA since our census is low, so we ended up doing everything! I think they're trying to save money also but its hard on us because the pts in rehab can be really demanding at times.

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Specializes in Telemetry.
On 3/21/2020 at 9:45 PM, Rionoir said:

How are your basketball skills? There seems to be an abundance of test kits set aside for basketball players showing no symptoms. ?

This is infuriating!! #prioritiesonpoint

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