Is it fair for the media to blame the RN in Texas for contracting Ebola?

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  1. Is it fair for the media to blame the RN in Texas for contracting Ebola?

    • 15
      Yes
    • 448
      No

463 members have participated

I am watching cnn outfront hosted by erin burnett. Throughout this program she has said the most offensive things about nurses that are outrageous. This journalist has no medical experience. Has never worked as a nurse. However, she is actively critizing somone as they fight for their life. This nurse made a huge sacrifice by caring for someone who had ebola. The head of the cdc blame the nurse, doctors are doing inteviews blame the nurse, people who have never worked in a medical setting blame the nurse. We as nurses need stand up and demand the truth be told.

Specializes in L&D, Women's Health.
I am with you on this one luv2. I had this debate with my brother's wife just last night. She insists that the nurse must have "broken protocol", but I disagree. This thing is spreading in Africa way too fast to be just bodily fluid transfer. Doctors and nurses KNOW what they are dealing with here so I cannot fathom them being sloppy. The more likely explanation is that the CDC and our government are flat-out lying about this virus. It is far more contagious than we are being led to believe...

For the record, I am not a doctor or disease specialist... this is just from reading about all this and is my opinion. Oh and I just heard this morning that a SECOND nurse that treated Duncan is infected! How many nurses and doctors need to be infected in the U.S. before the CDC is forced to admit that they are lying to us?

Logically, I don't see how anyone is buying the mainstream story!

Regards,

LW

I can't say positively if "protocol" was broken or not . . . it doesn't appear the hospital had any protocol in place. If the nurse was wearing what the hospitals consider PPE (gown, gloves, mask, goggles . . . maybe shoe covers), then their PPE is woefully inadequate and the hospital obviously did not (does not?) hold the health of their employees paramount.

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I wish someone would tell me what happened to patient confidentally? How is the hospital, CDC and media even identifying and discussing her or any patient for that matter. My prayers and thoughts are with thes nurses.

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Specializes in L&D, Women's Health.
I wish someone would tell me what happened to patient confidentally? How is the hospital, CDC and media even identifying and discussing her or any patient for that matter. My prayers and thoughts are with thes nurses.

She probably signed a release. Perhaps she did so in hopes of obtaining the support she has received, which is a good thing, I would think. Otherwise, she'd only be reading about how she was to blame for becoming infected.

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Specializes in LTC, Psych, M/S.

I wonder if opinions will change now that a 2nd nurse is infected....

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In the long run this situation with ebola (would not call it an epidemic yet) will bring public attention to the inestimable value of nurses. As nurses always do, we will step up to the plate and do whatever is necessary to take care of our patients.

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Now for a nurse that treated a known Ebola case to hop on an airplane is stupid. Who in their right mind would do such a thing? I would not even consider going home if I were treating an Ebola case, nor would I even consider hopping onto an airplane.

Does this make any sense? Would you guys hope on an airplane after exposure to an Ebola patient? So now the CDC want to track down all >100 passengers... (sigh) I thought they said this would not come here? I thought it would be "easily" contained? This is just getting downright rediculous...

-LW

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Specializes in NICU.
Now for a nurse that treated a known Ebola case to hop on an airplane is stupid. Who in their right mind would do such a thing? I would not even consider going home if I were treating an Ebola case, nor would I even consider hopping onto an airplane.

Does this make any sense? Would you guys hope on an airplane after exposure to an Ebola patient? So now the CDC want to track down all >100 passengers... (sigh) I thought they said this would not come here? I thought it would be "easily" contained? This is just getting downright rediculous...

-LW

Well, to what end? Should the nurse not go to a public place, school, etc? What about all the other nasty diseases that aren't forefront in the news right now? Should the nurses taking care of those pts avoid public places and airplanes too? We are taught that proper use of PPEs prevent catching and spreading disease. Clearly that's not the case here, but at the time she would have had no reason to think otherwise.

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Specializes in RN, CHPN.

We've seen the wrong way to handle Ebola, in Texas. Nurses with their heads and necks uncovered, wearing flimsy gowns, etc. and now two of them infected.

Here's how the nurses at Emory protect themselves:

Nurses show how they prepare to treat Ebola patients

No nurse should have any less than this!

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Well, to what end? Should the nurse not go to a public place, school, etc? What about all the other nasty diseases that aren't forefront in the news right now? Should the nurses taking care of those pts avoid public places and airplanes too? We are taught that proper use of PPEs prevent catching and spreading disease. Clearly that's not the case here, but at the time she would have had no reason to think otherwise.

Yes, you/we are taught one thing but what actually happens can be drastically different as in this particular case. Would you risk bringing Ebola home and infecting family members? I would not. My brother's wife is an RN and she says the same thing. She would do her job and treat the patient but she would not go home. She'd either stay at the hospital or get a hotel. EDIT: Yes, I know she would risk folks at the hotel... her words not mine! Point is she'd try to protect her family from exposure.

Clearly, something about this protocol is just plain wrong OR the nurses made serious protocol errors. Either way, I would seek to minimize my exposure to others and that includes self-banning myself from air travel until I knew that I am clear of this disease. I am not advocating that nurses live in a bubble, but this Ebola is in a completely different league and to risk over 100 peoples lives is either stupid or selfish... one or the other.

If this thing seriously grows teeth and turns pandemic, let's see how many agree with you then because now the CDC is seeking out the ~138 passengers on the plane that travelled with her.

Regards,

LW

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I thought this was really quite amusing. The Physician counts 2 breaches in PPE using Hershey's to simulate a little bit of stool. I counted 5 actually...

http://edition.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/us/2014/10/13/ac-sot-gupta-ebola-hazardous-material-suits.cnn.html

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Specializes in MICU, SICU, CICU.
Now for a nurse that treated a known Ebola case to hop on an airplane is stupid. Who in their right mind would do such a thing? I would not even consider going home if I were treating an Ebola case, nor would I even consider hopping onto an airplane.

Does this make any sense? Would you guys hope on an airplane after exposure to an Ebola patient? So now the CDC want to track down all >100 passengers... (sigh) I thought they said this would not come here? I thought it would be "easily" contained? This is just getting downright rediculous...

-LW

Everyone who still believes what the CDC said about Ebola not being infectious until the pt shows symptoms raise your hand.

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Everyone who still believes what the CDC said about Ebola not being infectious until the pt shows symptoms raise your hand.

(shakes head)... (hands tucked firmly under armpits)...

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