Isolation Patient's Visitors

[psalm, RN]

Does your hospital require or encourage visitors of isolation patients to gown and glove while they are visiting? We all have the STOP sign on the door and the ISOLATION sign. I'm just wondering if it's enforced in your hospital. I'm thinking if it was followed by staff, including doctors, and visitors, there would be a drastic drop in nosocomial infections. Any studies done on this?

[Elvish, BSN, DNP, RN, NP]

Encouraged yes. Enforced, no. I can understand asking the nurses to wear PPE since we're going from patient to patient. I don't know about you, but the docs don't generally wear anything, even as THEY go from room to room. It's gross. At one place I worked we had a doc who would go into isolation pts' rooms and eat the uneaten food off their tray. Blech.

I do think it would be nice if the PPE rule were extended (enforced) wih visitors. I guess the thinking is since they don't go from room to room (you hope) they are less of a threat. But what if they leave the pt's room and go down to the cafeteria? Then they've got VRE (or whatever) all over the cafeteria, and who knows who will pick it up and take it where.

Don't get me started. This is a little soapbox of mine!!

[madwife2002, BSN, RN]

Most of the visitors who visit isolation patients are so frightened of 'hospital aquired infections' they willingly put on gowns, masks etc. It is quiet funny sometimes because they really dont need to go to such lengths

[madwife2002, BSN, RN]

Encouraged yes. Enforced, no. I can understand asking the nurses to wear PPE since we're going from patient to patient. I don't know about you, but the docs don't generally wear anything, even as THEY go from room to room. It's gross. At one place I worked we had a doc who would go into isolation pts' rooms and eat the uneaten food off their tray. Blech.

I do think it would be nice if the PPE rule were extended (enforced) wih visitors. I guess the thinking is since they don't go from room to room (you hope) they are less of a threat. But what if they leave the pt's room and go down to the cafeteria? Then they've got VRE (or whatever) all over the cafeteria, and who knows who will pick it up and take it where.

Don't get me started. This is a little soapbox of mine!!

It is so gross patients and visitors in the staff cafeteria, recently we have seen a large increase in the amount of pts who eat at our cafeteria, complete with drips and some with bums showing!!! Plus we have to wait for up to 15mins to get our lunch because of the visitors, so we have to gulp our food faster than ever