Hi....I realize there is much information online about H1N1, and an enormous amount can be found here at allnurses...a great resource! But I'm finding nothing online specific to the virus in the NICU. I would love to hear how your units are handling the following situations.......nurse with sick family member, nurses floating to Peds or other floors with active flu cases, babies of suspected or confirmed positive mothers, visitors of those babies who will be going back and forth between mom and baby, suspected or confirmed moms visiting their babies. I have read no reports of babies themselves actually becoming ill with the flu....but several cases of mortality / morbidity r/t the premature births caused by Mom's flu have been reported. I think my greatest concern at this time, is the possibility of serious staffing issues if there are large numbers of premature or ill babies coinciding with large numbers of nurses out due to flu.
Our unit guidelines are no different that those for the rest of the hospital for now....they include: surgical mask if taking care of pt with unknown respiratory illness, staff with sick family members are to mask for 7 days from time of initial exposure, staff with flu are to stay home until fever free (although many times this particular flu is presenting without fever), we are pulling staff to peds and they are supposed to be reminded to stay off our unit (no coming over for lunch etc) if caring for respiratory pts.
Is this similar to what you are doing? Have you changed your visiting policies? We do have our manditory scrub in for visitors, of course...and now a sign reminding those with exposure to the flu to ask for a mask.
I am working in Australia, and as you know we just finish our flu season and had a massive H1N1 outbreak.
At good times about half of our babies in the level 3 unit were tested positive and 100% of visitors and staff expected to have been in contact with someone who has had the virus. All our premmies did well and were not seriously affected while being positive.
In fact one of our little ones was perfectly healthy after being born via emergency ceasar while her mom was dying of H1N1.
We did wear the special masks and single use long sleeve gowns and transferred all confirmed or suspected cases into isolettes. No special restrictions on visitors. just the normal standard i.e. to not visit if you feel unwell yourself. Also the babies were to remain in the isolettes for as long as no negative test result were achieved.
The flu you get from H1N1 is less tough on your body and the media - especially the European and US media - is making humongous hype about it. I would assume it sells extremely well. The danger lies in unknown mutation of the virus. For that, no vaccination will help you.
I am always amazed by what rights US employers have. And I love and appreciate this forum to hear about international differences.
It would be an unthinkable act here to make such a new and untested vaccination compulsory.
We are not required to get the seasonal of h1n1 vaccine. No visitors under the age of 18 are allowed on hospital property unless they are the patient or parent of a patient. No visitors with s/s of flu allowed. Any employee that is sick or has a family member at home sick=time off.
For the kids that we are getting that have been exposed, are treated on a different area (dropplet precautions).
The hospital offers the vaccine, but noone is required to get it. All of our nurses have received seasonal flu vax, but most are choosing not to be vaccinated against h1n1. Personal choice. All babies and moms must be isolated for 48 hours when a mom has flu like symptoms.
Personally, I'd advocate for setting up a thermal scanner at the door kind of like they have at a number of airports (I'm thinking of Hong Kong, specifically).
I've never been entirely satisfied relying on visitors to assess their own health and behave appropriately.
At our hospital, with THIS flu season, here is our protocol:
* No sick family members can visit...period. Not Mom, not Dad, not Grandma...nobody. If you sit beside your baby and are coughing and have a runny nose, they CANNOT return to visit the baby until they have a negative flu and H1N1 flu screen or 7 calender days have passed.
* No kids under 12...sibling or not.
* For nurses....if you are sick, you are out for 7 days.
Our policy is strict but parents are told this at admission.
I actually work in L&D but we had a pt with H1N1, and double pneumonia, who's baby was born at 29 weeks and sent to the NICU.
They wouldn't let her, or anyone in her family, go visit the baby because they were all considered exposed to H1N1.
I have no idea when they were planning to let them visit.
I understand the reasoning, but I still felt bad for her. I went down to the NICU for her to take pictures of her baby for her and it made her really happy.
The baby herself was also on droplet precautions down in the NICU.
I hope this link will work...... a NICU nurse dies of suspected H1N1 after caring for a baby of a mom hospitalized with the virus. ....... so sad.
Agreed, very sad that this lady died.
Why would we assume that, even if she did die of H1N1, that she contracted it at the hospital, let alone from the baby (who hasn't tested positive for the virus and isn't even described as being ill)?
We are in a pandemic... the virus is all over the place. I would argue that she's probably more likely to have contracted the virus in the community than in the NICU where excellent hand hygiene is so easy to do, and is 2nd nature.
Why would we assume that, even if she did die of H1N1, that she contracted it at the hospital, let alone from the baby (who hasn't tested positive for the virus and isn't even described as being ill)?
We are in a pandemic... the virus is all over the place. I would argue that she's probably more likely to have contracted the virus in the community than in the NICU where excellent hand hygiene is so easy to do, and is 2nd nature.
I agree. The odds that she contracted this from the baby is very slim. Just because mom tested positive doesn't mean the infant will.
I'm not sure the article is assuming the nurse got it from the patient.....I know I'm not trying to indicate that. I agree, with the baby testing negative this is probably unlikely. (and I believe the baby was always asymptomatic) However, the mother was hospitalized and critically ill from H1N1 and I do wonder what the visiting policies were. (ie...did mom come and go from the unit? dad? other relatives going between the two areas?) It is, indeed, likely that she could have been exposed from many other places....just thought it was interesting, considering our discussion on H1N1 in the NICU.
TheMiss
44 Posts
I am working in Australia, and as you know we just finish our flu season and had a massive H1N1 outbreak.
At good times about half of our babies in the level 3 unit were tested positive and 100% of visitors and staff expected to have been in contact with someone who has had the virus. All our premmies did well and were not seriously affected while being positive.
In fact one of our little ones was perfectly healthy after being born via emergency ceasar while her mom was dying of H1N1.
We did wear the special masks and single use long sleeve gowns and transferred all confirmed or suspected cases into isolettes. No special restrictions on visitors. just the normal standard i.e. to not visit if you feel unwell yourself. Also the babies were to remain in the isolettes for as long as no negative test result were achieved.
The flu you get from H1N1 is less tough on your body and the media - especially the European and US media - is making humongous hype about it. I would assume it sells extremely well. The danger lies in unknown mutation of the virus. For that, no vaccination will help you.
I am always amazed by what rights US employers have. And I love and appreciate this forum to hear about international differences.
It would be an unthinkable act here to make such a new and untested vaccination compulsory.