I'm very disturbed by this

[Virgo_RN, BSN, RN]

Virgo the evidence is showing that in an emergency situation that compressions are adequate.

I'm aware of this. I'm talking about people not even wanting to touch another person without PPE.

[chevyv, BSN, RN]

Maybe this would be a great time to suggest masks be available in every room. We had to make sure they were there every shift. I didn't have a chance to read this whole thread so forgive me if this has already been addressed.

[hoppermom3]

I recently did mouth to mouth on a patient with an oral airway in. Would that have been my first choice? Of course not! However, pt was in respiratory arrest (good pulses, cardiac rhythm) and there was not an ambu bag in the room. Crash cart was on its way, but not quick enough. A lot of things could have and should have been done differently, but I do not regret providing rescue breathing for this pt.

[lamazeteacher]

OMG! Thank you for sharing your story. :)

Your welcome! I did not do it to reprimand the new nurse; she had the patient's care first in her mind just as I did. I told my story to let others know what can happen. Precautions are there for a reason. I had 18 months of medications, feeling sick and losing weight down to 104 pounds over this. It was no little thing. Would I do it again for another patient in the same situation (primitive equipment); yeah I would. We all take a risk everyday we go into work. If you have access to protective gear just learn from this and please use them.

~Willow

REALLY??!! Or would you make it a practise to have a one way resuscitation mask in your pocket all the time, and be sure that the patient isn't DNR? Older patients have sustained very painful broken rib(s) when CPR was zealously done for them, and they'd been DNR!

[mamamerlee, LPN]

Katie - - Prior to the mid 80's, when Universal Precautions were not yet heard of, about the only time most of us wore gloves or other PPE, was when we had to clean up after a pt - stool, vomitus, blood. Or when we had all those different types of isolation. Hep C was called 'non-a/non-b', and the 'gay cancer' had not yet been defined. Did some healthcare professionals get sick? I am sure they did, but no one I knew personally ever did.

But let's not go back to the days of Lister.....we have all learned thru this.

I now take as many precautions as everyone else does, but I am not crazed by all this. I still push a cart around the supermarket, grab door handles to open public doors, and push buttons on elevators. Our cell phones and purses are probably fairly well contaminated, as are all those keyboards around the nurses' station...!

Morte - Thanks for backing me up! As you know, I was not advocating going back to the dark ages. If most of these illnesses were very easy to catch, there would be numbers to reflect it. As someone said, back injuries and other things are much more worrisome. I fell out of a rolling chair and fractured my wrist once while at work!

And, again, I will tend to some one who passes out in front of me.

[cherrybreeze, ADN, RN]

This actually is a huge deal, and if for some reason the state or OSHA walked in a that precise moment, the hospital or nurse could have and rightly should have been fined. She put herself and others at risk for many diseases. A couple of extra seconds in a code to get the ambu bag does not make a difference as now the new rules are that you have to have circulation anyways for the breathing to work. She should have done the chest compresssions while someone was getting an ambu bag. She screwed up.

The only time I ever did mouth to mouth (and I have been nursing 20 years now) is when I was in the military and one of my buddies was shot in a firefight and I had to mouth to mouth while waiting for evac. I knew him and knew what I was doing at that time.

(I have not read the whole thread yet, so I apologize if I am repeating anything.)

She put herself, and the patient, at risk. Please define "others."

[morte, LPN, LVN]

Katie - - Prior to the mid 80's, when Universal Precautions were not yet heard of, about the only time most of us wore gloves or other PPE, was when we had to clean up after a pt - stool, vomitus, blood. Or when we had all those different types of isolation. Hep C was called 'non-a/non-b', and the 'gay cancer' had not yet been defined. Did some healthcare professionals get sick? I am sure they did, but no one I knew personally ever did.

But let's not go back to the days of Lister.....we have all learned thru this.

I now take as many precautions as everyone else does, but I am not crazed by all this. I still push a cart around the supermarket, grab door handles to open public doors, and push buttons on elevators. Our cell phones and purses are probably fairly well contaminated, as are all those keyboards around the nurses' station...!

Morte - Thanks for backing me up! As you know, I was not advocating going back to the dark ages. If most of these illnesses were very easy to catch, there would be numbers to reflect it. As someone said, back injuries and other things are much more worrisome. I fell out of a rolling chair and fractured my wrist once while at work!

And, again, I will tend to some one who passes out in front of me.

no problem! i have never taken well to exaggeration as foundation for debate.....

[Willow Moonsidhe]

Originally Posted by Willow Moonsidhe

OMG! Thank you for sharing your story. :)

Your welcome! I did not do it to reprimand the new nurse; she had the patient's care first in her mind just as I did. I told my story to let others know what can happen. Precautions are there for a reason. I had 18 months of medications, feeling sick and losing weight down to 104 pounds over this. It was no little thing. Would I do it again for another patient in the same situation (primitive equipment); yeah I would. We all take a risk everyday we go into work. If you have access to protective gear just learn from this and please use them.

~Willow

REALLY??!! Or would you make it a practise to have a one way resuscitation mask in your pocket all the time, and be sure that the patient isn't DNR? Older patients have sustained very painful broken rib(s) when CPR was zealously done for them, and they'd been DNR!

I guess you did not understand me. Back then there was only primitive equipment. No pocket mask and such. The woman was raped and beat up not have dead with CA. I always hated hearing ribs crack and such but that is the nature of CPR on the elderly. Back then we did a lot of things different than the way we do them today. Hope that clears things up.

~Willow

[GilaRRT]

I'm interested in this aspiration TB transmission story. From the mid 1960's to about 1998 I have found one case of this occurring. It seems to be rather rare?

[lamazeteacher]

Maybe this would be a great time to suggest masks be available in every room. We had to make sure they were there every shift. I didn't have a chance to read this whole thread so forgive me if this has already been addressed.

Sad to say, masks in every room aren't cost effective, which is why they're not there. Crash carts are supposed to be placed close to patients' rooms, and if there are many rooms on a unit, as many as are recommended should be at hand, and checked for completeness daily.

As we know, professionals filch things from them, and masks in each room would be found outside the hospital in short order, as pilfering by patients and their visitors is rampant.

[lamazeteacher]

A new nurse after her first code needs to be told she did well unless something was truly catastrophic. They usually curl up in a linen closet and cry once the adrenaline go's away. If the manager had stopped her or said something at that point, she may have been thrown off and been unable to continue. If a new nurse gets through a code and manages to stay in the room, I usually praise them. Maybe a few weeks later I'd work something into a conversation in the guise of a story about another code on an other unit. New grads are so fragile.

Are post code discussions/evals not being done anymore?

[brimama]

kudos to the nurse who did the cpr. i hope she is mine someday