infectious disease

should nurses continue working after being infected with hepatitis c?

Why on earth NOT??? Can you be more specific?

Why on earth NOT??? Can you be more specific?

just wanted to know what other nurses thought about it,i heard comments from some that think you should not work as a nurse or do any type of pt care,i don't agree.i know of a nurse that was let go after being found positive with hep c and another respiratory tech who got expose to hep c after a stick in nicu,she quit after she found out she was positive.

I find it extremely bizarre that she would have contracted Hep C from the NICU. Hep C is very rarely transmitted to the children of infected mothers..but I guess it's not impossible. It is most easily transmitted through IV drug use and blood transfusions, and extremely rarely through sexual contact or transmitted to a fetus.

It is virutally impossible for this nurse to be a danger to patients unless she were bleeding profusely into a patient's open wound or vein. It just doesn't happen. If she was fired for having Hep C, then she is being discriminated against.

why not continue to work? if proper precautions are taken this is not a problem. i myself have been working and living with hep c for at least the past 10 years. i figure i was infected at work. the docs agree. so....just a reminder fellow nurses...wear your ppe!!!!! :)