Are you prepared for Avian Flu?

Nurses General Nursing

Published

For Avian Flu' ?

I mean as nurses, not individuals!

I am on the Major incident team for my hospital, meetings are now twice monthly not twice yearly.

I live in Northern Ireland so because of the political situation, we always have to be prepared.

As nurses have you been told treatment procedures, triage procedures. If there is a pandemic.

For Alabama Medic-I don't know if my hospital /Home health agency is planning an ER phone triage program or not (I hope so!) but do know a software company that uses web based services for triaging HH patients.

This could automate the triage process for patients being tracked for the flu or other chronic diseases. It allows algorhythms for managing visits/MD calls by disease specific criteria-called TouchPointCare.

I'm going to set it up and beta test it for my HH agency-

will think thru possibilities for it helping with flu.

Please share any plans you have as I'm going to talk with my Director about getting us ready.

Thanks for sharing!

Mary J

0 Votes
Specializes in pysch (forensic + acute) Major incident.
Yes, they CAN force you to work-executive order- and no, they dont have to provide the PPE if it runs out- they simply can't at that point.

It doesnt necessarily mean you get to go home.

It does mean theres a real likelyhood the rules change. And I'll bet we wont like those changes...

Here in Northern Ireland we can be forced to work also, with or without PPE's. I don't expect any less to be honest. When you go into Nursing or medicine it is a vocation, you can't bottle out when the going gets tough. The same as the military or police..There would be an outcry if they refused to protect us.

I, like others here have a young family but I also have family to care for them when my DH and I go to work. The plan was to always to have the little cousins in the one house anyway.

I think in Nursing you should always expect to be infected with something, if you don't you are lucky

0 Votes
Specializes in Too many to list.
Here in Northern Ireland we can be forced to work also, with or without PPE's. I don't expect any less to be honest. When you go into Nursing or medicine it is a vocation, you can't bottle out when the going gets tough. The same as the military or police..There would be an outcry if they refused to protect us.

I, like others here have a young family but I also have family to care for them when my DH and I go to work. The plan was to always to have the little cousins in the one house anyway.

I think in Nursing you should always expect to be infected with something, if you don't you are lucky

You know, the biggest reason of all for us to work? Look at who our patients will be. They will be young. They will be our children and our young adults, perhaps other age groups, but mostly the young. We can not abandon them. The potential loss of so many young people and children would be devasting. We have to try to save as many as we can. I still believe that most on this board will work because they will be unable to turn away. You said on your thread over at curevents.com that you would improvise if PPE's were not available. I guess we can do this also, we just have to realize that we might have to.

0 Votes
Specializes in pysch (forensic + acute) Major incident.
You know, the biggest reason of all for us to work? Look at who our patients will be. They will be young. They will be our children and our young adults, perhaps other age groups, but mostly the young. We can not abandon them. The potential loss of so many young people and children would be devasting. We have to try to save as many as we can. I still believe that most on this board will work because they will be unable to turn away. You said on your thread over at curevents.com that you would improvise if PPE's were not available. I guess we can do this also, we just have to realize that we might have to.

Hey :)

I think thats it...Imagine young kids, the same age as your own and walking away..I couldn't! I suppose it could be seen as protecting our future.

At the moment I look after quite a few elderly neighbours and other neighbours come to me for advise. I am having a battle with myself wondering could I refuse to help them in a pandemic..I don't think I could, though if I am at work, that would solve that problem! I have a problem with people saying they are SIPing and not helping neighbours and family..I realise this is an issue with me and not the general public though.

Just reading an e-mail from a friend. She is a nurse in England. 2 of her local hospitals have had outbreaks of Pneumonia in the young and teens. Never been seen before allegedly.

It concerns me all these *isolated* outbreaks of respiratory illness. Asthma in my area, pneumonia in clusters in Southern Ireland and now in England..Strangely peculiar!:uhoh21:

I think as nurses we have become precious and spoilt. Think of nurses in developing countries, in military field hospitals, in the middle of natural disasters or terror attacks..They improvise, take risks and just generally get on with it..I hope to God things don't get that bad during a pandemic but I will keep it at the back of my mind. That there are other nurses out there who have it worse than me, who I am in awe off and who I am damn well going to try to work like..Though I may cry more than them..LOL

0 Votes
Specializes in Too many to list.
Hey :)

I think thats it...Imagine young kids, the same age as your own and walking away..I couldn't! I suppose it could be seen as protecting our future.

At the moment I look after quite a few elderly neighbours and other neighbours come to me for advise. I am having a battle with myself wondering could I refuse to help them in a pandemic..I don't think I could, though if I am at work, that would solve that problem! I have a problem with people saying they are SIPing and not helping neighbours and family..I realise this is an issue with me and not the general public though.

Just reading an e-mail from a friend. She is a nurse in England. 2 of her local hospitals have had outbreaks of Pneumonia in the young and teens. Never been seen before allegedly.

It concerns me all these *isolated* outbreaks of respiratory illness. Asthma in my area, pneumonia in clusters in Southern Ireland and now in England..Strangely peculiar!:uhoh21:

I think as nurses we have become precious and spoilt. Think of nurses in developing countries, in military field hospitals, in the middle of natural disasters or terror attacks..They improvise, take risks and just generally get on with it..I hope to God things don't get that bad during a pandemic but I will keep it at the back of my mind. That there are other nurses out there who have it worse than me, who I am in awe off and who I am damn well going to try to work like..Though I may cry more than them..LOL

I have been wondering about these odd outbreaks of pneumonias and such also. In Canada, middle aged and young adults coming down with pneumonias normally seen in the elderly, what's with that?

There are nurses and HCWs on all of the various flu blogs, I have noticed, and, I am wondering if we might put our collective knowledge together and do some planning and sharing of information. As individuals our voices may not be heard, but as a group, we may be able to make a difference towards national and international preparation in nursing care. Let us look at the various problems that we have begun to foresee, and make some contingency plans for our communities. To begin with, we must assume that even if H5N1 does not become pandemic, some other virus will, just because this is the nature of influenza A. We know it is not a matter of if, but rather it is a matter of when. This is the reality, based on our history, and nothing has occurred that will alter this event. The belief or disbelief of anyone who reads this has no bearing on what will happen. We can not wish it away. So, start with the admission that this is a given. Therefore, we absolutely must begin preparations for dealing with mass casualties, and hold our lawmakers to task for closing healthcare facilities during this God given time for preparation. There are so many, many issues that beg to be addressed.

0 Votes
Specializes in Too many to list.

Duplicate post, sorry...

0 Votes
Specializes in pysch (forensic + acute) Major incident.
I have been wondering about these odd outbreaks of pneumonias and such also. In Canada, middle aged and young adults coming down with pneumonias normally seen in the elderly, what's with that?

There are nurses and HCWs on all of the various flu blogs, I have noticed, and, I am wondering if we might put our collective knowledge together and do some planning and sharing of information. As individuals our voices may not be heard, but as a group, we may be able to make a difference towards national and international preparation in nursing care. Let us look at the various problems that we have begun to foresee, and make some contingency plans for our communities. To begin with, we must assume that even if H5N1 does not become pandemic, some other virus will, just because this is the nature of influenza A. We know it is not a matter of if, but rather it is a matter of when. This is the reality, based on our history, and nothing has occurred that will alter this event. The belief or disbelief of anyone who reads this has no bearing on what will happen. We can not wish it away. So, start with the admission that this is a given. Therefore, we absolutely must begin preparations for dealing with mass casualties, and hold our lawmakers to task for closing healthcare facilities during this God given time for preparation. There are so many, many issues that beg to be addressed.

I am all for it..If others are up for it!

I am not around too often but often enough.

I think if we could get nurses from all over the Globe. We need to look at the countries individual pandemic planning and Hospital protocol.

Alot of countries have field hospitals in their planning and strict healthcare planning--We could learn from that.

Other countries or individual hospitals have nothing.

I think it was on Curevents that I was livid at the Gov's paying lipservice to protecting their country against BF..Oh we have Tamiflu and vaccines..They don't have enough, they don't have enough beds or equipment..These sporadic news bulletins re: Tamiflu, Relenza or vaccines are lulling the general populations into a false sense of security.

I know GP's and community nurses here are getting worried because they have been told to get prepared as 1st responders.

I will help anyway I can..

0 Votes
Specializes in Too many to list.
I am all for it..If others are up for it!

know GP's and community nurses here are getting worried because they have been told to get prepared as 1st responders.

I will help anyway I can..

This is exactly what I am seeing with some state pandemic flu plans. There is no guidance just this announcement that they will be utilizing community nurses and and long term care facilities to take the patients that hospitals can not. I want to know more about this. I guess that I am saying that maybe nursing needs to be involved in this planning. Hello! Who is making the plans for us? Shouldn't we be involved?

0 Votes
Specializes in pysch (forensic + acute) Major incident.

I don't know if this will help..

http://www.dhsspsni.gov.uk/delilah.pdf

and this

Emergency Planning | Pandemic Flu | DHSSPS(NI)

Revealed: Ireland's plans for coping with bird flu - World - Times Online

This second link is for Southern Ireland but there will be cross-border co-operation and operations.

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Specializes in Too many to list.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,25149-1869762,00.html

This is an excellent link. Thank you, Gizzie. I would be more hopeful if we were doing the same here in the States. We are going to have to.

It will take me a while to study the other links since I am running out of time.

I worked last nite, and my body wants to sleep! I am going to think about all of this over the weekend and consider a few things.

0 Votes
Specializes in pysch (forensic + acute) Major incident.
This is exactly what I am seeing with some state pandemic flu plans. There is no guidance just this announcement that they will be utilizing community nurses and and long term care facilities to take the patients that hospitals can not. I want to know more about this. I guess that I am saying that maybe nursing needs to be involved in this planning. Hello! Who is making the plans for us? Shouldn't we be involved?

The GPs and community nurses know they are first responders and their role and treatment protocol BUT they are worried about what they are going to face, what is truely expected of them, are they mentally ready to face this level of death and disease ALONE..Inevitably they will be making housecalls alone..It is a scary, scary time..Especially for those in the dark..

Nursing should be involved in the planning, no-one knows how nurses will react or cope with certain situations but nurses. Nurses should have a say in guidelines regarding their own operations.

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Specializes in Too many to list.

This was just posted at Flutrackers (thanks, Florida 1, you're the best!), and I think it is germane to the discussion especially as I see that NURSES are involved in this:

Providing Mass Medical Care with Scarce Resources:

A Community Planning Guide

http://www.ahrq.gov/research/mce/mceguide.pdf

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