Have you been ever gotten sick from working as a nurse?

[Aly529]

I know this question may seem silly so I apologize in advance. I'm not referring to common colds, stomach viruses, etc. I know those can be common esspecially in the beggining since your immune system has not adjusted to deal with so many things at once. BUT have you been infected or close to being infected with something serious?

[FlyingScot, RN]

I got RSV and Mycoplasma pneumonia while working in the PICU during the infamous RSV season. Waited too long to get treatment. The ER wanted to intubate me, I refused on the grounds that I was still mentating. Spent a week in the hospital and nearly 6 weeks off of work. Now I have severe asthma related to the damage done to my lungs.

[Flare, ASN, BSN]

haven't really gotten anything too nasty - though when i was pregnant I was checked for exposure to fifth disease - as most people are - My career as a school nurse made my titer level the highest my ob/gyn's even seen. Guess i won't contracting fifth disease any time soon.

[blueheaven]

I've gotten sick several times from "bugs" at work not only from patients but from co-workers who drag it into work sick. I got PA pneumonia when I was in nursing school. She was a 17 year old trach patient in the SICU and blew mucus everywhere if she was mad and you got near her. Guess who had to do trach care on her (in front of the instructor)?

Since then I have developed some chronic lung problems (not due to that episode of PNA) and I wear a mask whenever I suction a trach patient or caring for a patient with a cough.

[OCNRN63, RN]

Yes. I wound up hospitalized, and it left me with a chronic illness. I'm leaving out the details to protect my identity.

[ZippyGBR, BSN, RN]

mrsa. Gross. I'm sure we all have it by now though if we work in a hospital setting.

, why do you think they never swab staff? unless you are due to have an invasice procedure or are admitted

I suspect a lot of people working in healthcare are colonised ... but how much MRSA is hospital detected rather than hospital acquired ...

[halkogirl]

You can reduce your chances of contracting a staph infection if you observe your universal precautions diligently and pay particular attention to hand washing

You shouldn't pick up a staph infection at work.

As an aside ....most of my p'ts with cellulitis don't have particularly healthy lifestyles. They often smoke, drink heavily, poor nutrition, obese, poor personal hygiene. Not always - but often

You CAN colonize staph on your skin. A bee sting introduces the staph into the skin. The reason that nurses clean an area of skin with alcohol before administering any type of injection into the skin is so that anything living on the skin, such as STAPH, does not get into the body and cause an infection such as cellulitis. You can follow all of the universal precautions that you want, or not even work in health care for that matter, and colonize staph. Every living human being has bacteria colonized on their skin.

My physician told me that bee stings are a common cause of cellulitis in healthy people. Anytime you break the skin the bacteria that is colonized on your skin can enter the wound and infect it. Bee stings are puncture wounds that tend to swell up even in people who are not allergic. If the skin is punctured and then the puncture wound swells shut, the bacteria that was on the skin becomes trapped in the deepest areas of puncture and cannot be as easily cleaned out from the wound as if the wound was open. Neosporin may not be able to reach the deepest layer of puncture. Healthy people can, and do, get cellulitis.

But my doc must be wrong, I must not be healthy. I am apparently a dirty, smelly, fat, lazy, chain-smoking alcoholic for getting cellulitis.

[CFitzRN, ADN]

Ended up with H1N1 after caring for a pt with it. But that's it so far.

[Aly529]

Thanks for all the info...sorry for all of you who have gotten sick. I have a similar question as the student nurse above. Would these issues be covered by worker's comp, fmla, etc? Also, with every place I've worked granted it was non health related mostly everything was covered by fmla, short term leave or long term leave and your health insurance continued while you were out.

[pedicurn, LPN, RN]

Healthy people can, and do, get cellulitis.

But my doc must be wrong, I must not be healthy. I am apparently a dirty, smelly, fat, lazy, chain-smoking alcoholic for getting cellulitis.

I think I said many ...not all :)

The bees sting example is a good one and I see these happening with healthy people

However ... I do maintain that the majority of younger non-immunocompromised p'ts with cellulitis are obese /smoke /drink /have poor diet. We see them daily - majority smoke, are obese, live on takeaways and generally low quality diet (junk)

[anon456, BSN, RN]

I am sure that by now I am colonized with MRSA and "regular" staph aureus, as well as pseudamonas. They all run rampant on my trach/vent unit. Most of the patients come in already colonized with it in their trachs. We swab them upon admission and 9 out of 10 have one of these. We put most everyone on contact/droplet precautions, and wash hands very very frequently. But I'm sure I'm colonized with these things. We also right now have flu (both B and A- H1N1), pertussis, RSV, adenovirus, parainfluenza, and rhinovirus on the floor. This is just in the last 2 weeks of working.

I have never been able to trace an infection back to a patient. Usually I get sick because one of my kids comes home with a cold from school and coughs in my face, since I don't put them on contact/droplet precautions. I probably should but usually it's too late by the time they are sick.

[HelloWish, ADN, BSN]

I am not yet in nursing school but hope to start next Fall. I was curious about this topic too! There are some great pointers here that I hope I can remember in the future, like wearing a mask. I think I would be one of those that is extra precautious, because I certainly wouldn't want to bring anything home to my little boy who has serious allergy issues and gets respiratory problems easily (same for me).

Is there any area of nursing that a new graduate can get into that isn't as risky? I am really interested in epidemiological or research nursing, but I don't know how much acute care experience one would need first. The idea of school nursing or mother/baby sounds good too. If I didn't hate being up all night, I would seriously consider becoming a CNM. Anyway, it was my understanding that one has to gain acute care experience before really moving into other areas of interest in nursing.

[Nascar nurse, ASN, RN]

Years ago working as a nurse in a nursing home at Christmas time. Every local Girl Scout & Boy Scout troop in & out for service projects to our people.....bringing their cute little lice critters with them. Spent 3-11 shift Christmas Eve that year quelling residents & the staff. Still makes me shiver.