Have you ever gotten really sick from a patient?

[RN_2001]

Just got out of hospital following exposure to a patient with viral gastroenteritis. I was so sick that I spent two days in critical care for hypovolemic shock.

For several years now it hasn't been uncommon for me to get a GI bug once a year, always in the winter. It's never been this bad though . One of the doctors during my stay told me how they contracted meningitis from a patient and almost died.

I'm starting to think I need to find a new line of work (have been in ER for several years). This realization has me feeling somewhat depressed as I wouldn't otherwise leave. But being sick this time has been a real wake-up call.

[caliotter3]

It took me awhile to realize that the severe, lingering URI originated from my patient whose normal state included various shades of copious bronchotracheal secretions. His doctor kept him in antibiotic therapy. I had no doctor.

[RunnerNurse09, BSN, RN]

This is exactly why I left the ER/hospital setting. Staff was sick all the time. A few months before I left I had a terrible URI where I had a fever of 104 and couldn't get it any lower than 102 with tylenol and motrin. 6 days of being sick. I have young kids and decided it wasn't worth the risk of getting them so ill (or worse).

[GrumpyRN, NP]

Probably caught many small infections over the years. but the one that I really remember was managing to catch scabies from a patient.

We all caught that from this patient at least the treatment was simple although messy.

[NurseSpeedy, ADN, LPN, RN]

Honestly I think I've caught more illnesses from sick staff members that were afraid of calling in for their shift than from patients that I have had with contagious infections. Plus I wasn't sharing a phone, keyboard, pixis machine with the patient. I'm sure I've caught something from a patient here and there, but nothing that was bad enough for me to consider a job change.