Wife demands test for MRSA

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Specializes in LTC, Med/Surg, Peds, ICU, Tele.

Boy am I getting sick of this MRSA hysteria. I worked 4 hours as a favor for someone on Med/Surg yesterday. I had a 81 year GI bleed patient getting blood. His COPDer wife on O2 came in, she was the loud, demanding type.

She said that her husband needed to be tested for MRSA. I asked her why she thought he had MRSA. She said when they were in the ER yesterday, she heard that someone had MRSA. I told her I would pass on her request to the doctor. She was very insistant and demending, practically expecting me to drop everything to call him right then and there.

I mentioned it to the nurse who came on the relieve me at 1100.(and not a moment too soon :rolleyes: )

I'm ready for the public to latch onto something new for their unreasonable fears. Meanwhile, the woman was walking around with a portable O2 tank and reeking of cigarettes. :down:

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Specializes in FNP, Peds, Epilepsy, Mgt., Occ. Ed.

I once had a mom bring her son in to the clinic to be tested for meningitis. She'd heard that his cousin, whom he'd seen for a short time two weeks before, had been diagnosed with it.

The kid was perfectly well, no symptoms of anything. I explained to her that testing for meningitis was a bit more complicated that she seemed to think and that it wasn't something that was going to be done unless there was at least some hint that her child might possibly be sick.

Hopefully someone will be able to educate this wife about MRSA.

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Meanwhile, the woman was walking around with a portable O2 tank and reeking of cigarettes. :down:

*snort*

Was she also obese? Because I have her picture in my mind, and it includes Twinkies and a vial of Humulin R.

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Specializes in Gerontological, cardiac, med-surg, peds.

At PCMH in Greenville, NC, everyone is screened for MRSA, upon admission. Not a bad idea, IMHO:

http://www.wdnweb.com/articles/2007/11/08/news/news01.txt

PS. PCMH is also screening the health staff (including nurses) on some units.

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Specializes in LTC, Med/Surg, Peds, ICU, Tele.
*snort*

Was she also obese? Because I have her picture in my mind, and it includes Twinkies and a vial of Humulin R.

She was chubby but not morbidly so. She had a scowl on her face similar to Bea Arthur of 'The Golden Girls'. She looked like she would fit in very well at Las Vegas in front of a slot machine, with a cigarette dangling from her mouth, and mixed drink in one hand, and a bucket of tokens in the other, eyes glazed as she repeatedly pulled the handle of the machine.

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Got it.

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Specializes in LTC, Med/Surg, Peds, ICU, Tele.
At PCMH in Greenville, NC, everyone is screened for MRSA, upon admission. Not a bad idea, IMHO:

http://www.wdnweb.com/articles/2007/11/08/news/news01.txt

PS. PCMH is also screening the health staff (including nurses) on some units.

Interesting. Do they put all people who test positive on isolation and Vanco?

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Specializes in LTC, Med/Surg, Peds, ICU, Tele.

Oh, I see from the article:

“Humans tend to carry staph in the nose, if at all,” Ramsey said. “It’s a very painless type of procedure to test for it. If the patient tests positive, it can be treated with a simple nasal cream applied twice a day for five days.”

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Oh, I see from the article:

"Humans tend to carry staph in the nose, if at all," Ramsey said. "It's a very painless type of procedure to test for it. If the patient tests positive, it can be treated with a simple nasal cream applied twice a day for five days."

My dentist had it. Bactroban to the nares x2 wks. Gone.

If you're a human you're carrying staph somewhere in your body.

This whole thing is such nonsense. MRSA is no more dangerous than any other staph. It simply requires different meds.

We are so ripe for a major Malthusian disaster, and MRSA isn't it.

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Specializes in Pediatrics.

I am sick of the MRSA hysteria too. One of our (many) MRSA abscess pts (I work in peds by the way), his mother was called REPEATEDLY yesterday, DIRECTLY into the patient's hospital room, by a TV news channel wanting details about his illness, so they could make it part of their story and include the kid's school, etc!! (Don't ask me how they got the number!!) Luckily community relations dept. got involved, especially when mom saw info about her kid (not the name) on the evening news saying that she had confirmed certain info about her child for the newscaster when she had ACTUALLY refused to speak with them, but I mean, come on, this is ridiculous!!!! Since when is a child with a small MRSA abscess an evening news story??? We've got dozens or more of them every month!

(Sorry for all the punctuation, this is just really getting on my nerves...)

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My dentist had it. Bactroban to the nares x2 wks. Gone.

If you're a human you're carrying staph somewhere in your body.

This whole thing is such nonsense. MRSA is no more dangerous than any other staph. It simply requires different meds.

We are so ripe for a major Malthusian disaster, and MRSA isn't it.

Yep.

And when it does come along, the public is going to be so numb from the media crying "WOLF!" over every little perceived 'threat', they aren't going to pay any attention.

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The hospital I work at tests all admissions for MRSA in the nares. If it comes back positive, they are put in iso and moved off my unit (peds/gyn) unless they are actually a peds patient. So far, we haven't seen much hysteria about it, even when people have tested positive. When people are tested they are given a pamphlet about MRSA. I have to admit though, some people have gotten a little bit irritated by being swabbed in the nose for a broken leg or belly ache.

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