Do patients rarely catch a cold?

[d'cm]

In my 13 yrs of nursing I cannot remember a patient coming down with classic "cold" symptoms in the hospital. I asked my colleques if they could confirm my observation and they agreed - it was rare to see a pt catch a cold. So, I am putting the question out to world of nursing: How often do you see a patients show obvious symptoms of the common viral cold?

If the answer truely is - rare, then we would have to wonder why. They constantly get infected with every other bug in the book as soon as they hit the floor.

[nursemike, ASN, RN]

Same here. I've only been a nurse ayear and a half, but I was in healthcare seven years before that. Other night I had a trach I thought might be developing pneumonia, but the doc said it might just be flu. I think that would be the first flu--unless it turns out to be pneumonia. They were doing a chest x-ray when I left. Weird, because I see employees with colds and flu all the time!

[SCRN1]

I wonder if it's because of the dry air in the hospitals.

[PeachyERNurse, BSN, RN]

I don't have enough experience in the hospital to answer that question, but on Thursday morning, I woke up feeling perfectly fine. I went to my clinical, came home feeling kind sick, and later that night I definitely had a cold. I think I caught if from my clinical (not necessarily from a patient), but who knows.

[CaLLaCoDe, BSN, RN]

They can become more frigid than frigid air, but rarely if never have I seen a patient catch a cold!

They are too busy taking their cigarette breaks, requesting pain meds Q2, and dogging the cute nurse to be be troubled after getting their Dx of Angina R/O MI!

[Logan]

Hi,

You mean they can catch anything from Pneumonia to Strep to MRSA in hospitals ... but they don't catch common colds?!!

I can't say that easy though - most of my kiddos already have sniffles when the come in...

thanks,

Matthew

[nservice]

I've never thought about this, but what a good question. You know we all come to work sick. Sure, we call in on our sickest day, but you know we are there working while we're infectious. I've never seen a patient come down with a cold. Is it the hand washing? Maybe they are discharged before cold symptoms appear? Things that make you go, "hmmmmm"!

[d'cm]

They can become more frigid than frigid air, but rarely if never have I seen a patient catch a cold!

They are too busy taking their cigarette breaks, requesting pain meds Q2, and dogging the cute nurse to be be troubled after getting their Dx of Angina R/O MI!

wow, I thought I was cynical.

[d'cm]

I've never thought about this, but what a good question. You know we all come to work sick. Sure, we call in on our sickest day, but you know we are there working while we're infectious. I've never seen a patient come down with a cold. Is it the hand washing? Maybe they are discharged before cold symptoms appear? Things that make you go, "hmmmmm"!

Exactly. Maybe we do a better job of washing hands than "they" say. Another thought to run with: What is one sickness that the docs don't have anything to prescribe for? - The common cold. I wonder what the outcome would be if someone opened a unit where antibiotics were forbidden.