Kind of disgusted with the place im doing my CNA clinicals:

Nurses General Nursing

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i started cna classes this month and the number one thing we learned to prevent spread of disease is wearing gloves and washing hands before and after any resident/patient which to me seems like common since among a few other things you shouldn't do, like putting linens back into the linen closet after its been taken out whether it was used or not, especially if it was on someone's bed and that person has mrsa, or when that person is in isolation and u have to put on the gown, gloves etc. and taking them off before exiting the room, am i right? well last wednesday was my first day of clinicals at this nursing home, one of the first things i noticed during my clinicals is that the aids almost never wash their hands sometimes don't even wear gloves when they should, don't get me wrong some of these aids where good but where not following standard precautions at all, of course i couldn't stop washing my hands. well sat i went in and i was in the alzheimer's unit and we went to toilet one of the residents, come to find out this resident has mrsa in her eyes, now mind you this person has alzheimer's and romes around the unit touching everything, shouldn't they have some kind of isolation for that person instead of letting her rome around touching everything with her hands after she is rubbing her eyes that have mrsa, bc when it comes down to it someone may come along touch the same object or her hands for that matter (anyone who has worked with alzheimer's patients know that they like to take you by the hand and go for walks or just hold your hand) then touch an open sore or their eyes and end up getting mrsa, please tell me if i got this wrong? last night was my 5th day in clinicals, so i get there and they put me on the hall i was on the first day, so i didn't think anything of it. well i started passing ice, come to find out one of the residents on that hall has mrsa in her osotomy opening and they didn't tell me till after i had already went into her room, thank god all i did was grab her water pitcher! but still my point of that is, i have a 17 month old so i like to know a head of time what im dealing with if you know what i mean. so as the day went on i went about my business helping the residents washing my hands nonstop (which i never seen the other aids do but maybe a couple times) there was one gentleman on that hall that i was helping with changing his clothes, toileting, transferring etc. well come to find out he has mrsa too in his urine! i didn't find that out until 5 min before my shift ended! although i wore gloves and washed my hands i still would have loved to know. this gentleman is right across the hall from this other lady that has it also. tell me if i'm wrong but isn't mrsa only spread through contact? because i find it kind of ironic how the aids never wash there hands or follows standard precaution and there is 3 people in that nursing home have mrsa and 2 are on the same hall, doesn't that say something? also, i seen the nurse of all people come out of this ladies room with gloves gown and the whole nine yards still on (after dealing with her osotomy where the mrsa is), taking them off while she walks down the hallway! shouldn't she have taken it off before exiting? then after that the aid i was working with goes into her room starts touching her bedding and everything without gloves, takes a couple of the bed pads that where on her bed and throws them back into the linen closet and we where taught to never do that, if it comes out and whether it's used or not it goes into the dirty linens to be washed. i was so disgusted by the end of the night with how they handled all this, i felt like i could have puked! i couldn't stop washing my hand bc they never wash theirs and they touch everything with their hands after dealing with the residents, so i was afraid i was going to touch something that they touched with their dirty hands. . . .im not trying to sound like i know everything and im not at all trying to say anything bad about the aids or nurses i am just so disgusted by this and feel that they are putting everyone at risk, am i wrong? i just feel that there is no such thing as being too cautious when it comes to this kind of stuff when working in the medical field and i don't feel that they were being cautious at all! is this something i should report?

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I would deff. report this, people are getting affected and that is not a sanitary environment for you or for anyone else. If I were you, I would keep washing my hands and keep hand sanitizer around at all times. Act like everyone in that place has MRSA whatever that is... So you are a CNA? I would like to get into the medical field. I was reseraching LPN program at Palm Beach Community College, but I was just thinking, Should I go for CNA before LPN? is it CNA, then LPN, then RN? I live in florida. Hey get back to me, please, tell me about the CNA classes, what to do to get in the program.

Thanks

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Specializes in LTC.

mrsa can also be airborne..ie respiratory mrsa (but it'd have to be a pretty fancy nursing home to be equipped to handle isolation for this type of patient)

i'm wondering how you know these residents have mrsa? you should technically only be privy to information regarding what type of isolation a patient may be on, not the disease or infection. i know it would be 'nice to know', but not even the employeed cnas who are taking care of the patient have the right to know the patient's diagnoses. it's possible that the mrsa is colonized and not in a communicable state..there's no way of telling without more information. as far as the employees not using standard precautions, well, you're going to see that everywhere, not that it makes it right. i would recommend saying something to your cna instructor and let him/her talk to someone. it sounds like this facility may be overdue for an infectious disease inservice. the problem is that if the cna students start talking about the employees and stirring up 'trouble' (even if it's well founded, which in this case, it would be), it would be nothing for the facility to kick you guys out. which they can and i have seen it happen on more than one occassion. tread carefully and as i said, this is something probably best handled by your instructor.

good luck

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Specializes in Emergency Medicine.

Remember you are doing your clinicals and you are a guest there.

All I can tell you is that hand washing will always be a concern wherever you go. Don't go into an establishment like a know-it-all and try to change things. You will regret it as a newbie/student provider.

I might talk to the person that supervises your clinical rotation (your liaison) so that He/She might say something on your behalf... the things you are observing.

Welcome to patient care. There are good caregivers and there are bad ones.

My advice is that you take care of yourself first. Do what is right.

Your strength will be that you did things the right way, you protected yourself and you gave appropriate care to your patients.

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Specializes in LTC, Memory loss, PDN.

BburgNurse is right. There are probably patient's colonized with MRSA the facility doesn't even know about. Your concerns are very valid and you will find

violations of universal precautions everywhere you go. Besides practicing your precautions, be aware of where and how you handle food or drink at work, e.g. I NEVER put my food in the break room fridge. Don't place pens or other items on counters. Don't touch your hair or face unless you just washed your hands. Be aware of how you handle your uniforms when you get home and even before that, when you get to your car (if you use private transportation). The list goes on et on. I've had fun poked at me by coworkers for being too obsessive with precautions and one of my ex coworkers lost a limb to MRSA.

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Remember you are doing your clinicals and you are a guest there.

All I can tell you is that hand washing will always be a concern wherever you go. Don't go into an establishment like a know-it-all and try to change things. You will regret it as a newbie/student provider.

I am not in any way going in anywhere acting like a know-it-all or trying to change anything. But I do believe I have a right to be concered for the residents that I take care of and myself. And if someone is putting my health and others health at risk, weather im a student or a newbie, I feel I have the right to say something to someone that can handle these types of situations. I know that people dont always wash their hands in the medical field thats obvious but there is no reason a nurse or anyone for that matter should come out of an isolation with their PPE on, that's for everyones protection

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We all have MRSA at some point or another.

Patients who are tested for bacterias like MRSA are usually isolated and treated for a period of 14 days, then re-tested. (Bactrim DS)

I work in a nursing home and we do isolate patients who test positive for MRSA. We glove up, wear gowns and masks before entering the room. They are required to wear a mask when taken out of their rooms for showers, and have to stay in their room at all other times. Trays and utensils are disposable, as are vital signs equipment. Medications that have to be brought into their rooms, like eye drops, are kept in their bedside table also.

It seems possible to me that once these patients you are referring to did have MRSA, but probably do not have it now. NO facility is going to allow them to walk around, distributing the germ to everyone.

Just my .02.

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mrsa can also be airborne..ie respiratory mrsa (but it'd have to be a pretty fancy nursing home to be equipped to handle isolation for this type of patient)

i'm wondering how you know these residents have mrsa? you should technically only be privy to information regarding what type of isolation a patient may be on, not the disease or infection. i know it would be 'nice to know', but not even the employeed cnas who are taking care of the patient have the right to know the patient's diagnoses. it's possible that the mrsa is colonized and not in a communicable state..there's no way of telling without more information. as far as the employees not using standard precautions, well, you're going to see that everywhere, not that it makes it right. i would recommend saying something to your cna instructor and let him/her talk to someone. it sounds like this facility may be overdue for an infectious disease inservice. the problem is that if the cna students start talking about the employees and stirring up 'trouble' (even if it's well founded, which in this case, it would be), it would be nothing for the facility to kick you guys out. which they can and i have seen it happen on more than one occassion. tread carefully and as i said, this is something probably best handled by your instructor.

good luck

im guessing maybe in the state of indiana we as care providers are allowed to know, they put all this kind of info on their care sheets. and as a care giver i think we have a right to know (my opinion, you nurses might not agree with that and that's okay) what kind of disease or infections we deal with concidering everthing we handle when it comes to bodily fluids.

also just to clear it up we do not go around stirring up "trouble" or gossiping (at least i dont, this is the first time saying anything about this bc i wanted opinions from people on here about what to do not to be called a know-it-all as one of the other posters said) but when we are in class and are tought one thing and we are in clinicals trying to learn and we see everone from cna's to nurses doing stuff we are not suppose to because its agains the state regulations we have a right to be concerned. just because im a student or newbie doen't mean i should just let things go when it puts other people at risk. im not saying im going to go to the don or the administator and tattle on someone bc like you all said its not my place to do that but i do feel i have a right to address it to someone that can handle it, that does not make me a know-it-all and def does not mean im stirring up trouble or trying to change things.

please do not take any of this offensive, im just trying to clear this all up, not trying to sound like a beotch or a know-it-all for that matter. i do appreciate everyones input.

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We all have MRSA at some point or another.

Patients who are tested for bacterias like MRSA are usually isolated and treated for a period of 14 days, then re-tested. (Bactrim DS)

I work in a nursing home and we do isolate patients who test positive for MRSA. We glove up, wear gowns and masks before entering the room. They are required to wear a mask when taken out of their rooms for showers, and have to stay in their room at all other times. Trays and utensils are disposable, as are vital signs equipment. Medications that have to be brought into their rooms, like eye drops, are kept in their bedside table also.

It seems possible to me that once these patients you are referring to did have MRSA, but probably do not have it now. NO facility is going to allow them to walk around, distributing the germ to everyone.

Just my .02.

They do still have it, these residents are still in isolation, besides the one in the alzheimers unit. If they didn't have it they wouldn't be on isolation, right? Im guessing if they didn't still have it the nurse wouldn't have put on all her PPE , which should have been takin off before entering the hallway right?

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Specializes in LTC.
im guessing maybe in the state of indiana we as care providers are allowed to know, they put all this kind of info on their care sheets. and as a care giver i think we have a right to know (my opinion, you nurses might not agree with that and that's okay) what kind of disease or infections we deal with concidering everthing we handle when it comes to bodily fluids.

also just to clear it up we do not go around stirring up "trouble" or gossiping (at least i dont, this is the first time saying anything about this bc i wanted opinions from people on here about what to do not to be called a know-it-all as one of the other posters said) but when we are in class and are tought one thing and we are in clinicals trying to learn and we see everone from cna's to nurses doing stuff we are not suppose to because its agains the state regulations we have a right to be concerned. just because im a student or newbie doen't mean i should just let things go when it puts other people at risk. im not saying im going to go to the don or the administator and tattle on someone bc like you all said its not my place to do that but i do feel i have a right to address it to someone that can handle it, that does not make me a know-it-all and def does not mean im stirring up trouble or trying to change things.

please do not take any of this offensive, im just trying to clear this all up, not trying to sound like a beotch or a know-it-all for that matter. i do appreciate everyones input.

as a matter of fact, i am in indiana. hipaa law - need to know basis. it's a serious violation with serious penalties to give out private patient information to a cna who does not need to know it in order to their job. this includes infectious diseases. i am sorry, but the only thing you have the right to know is what type of precautions to use. i swear i am not taking offense, i just feel like people often think they have the 'right' to know things about someone when there are laws in place that say otherwise. my grandmother was a patient at the nursing home i work at and she had c-diff. ok, first, i know that just based on s/sx it can be pretty obvious. but with my grandmother, she was on the tale end of a 6 week course of vanc and no longer had loose stools. yet, everyone on the freakin unit knew. this embarrassed her so bad because she is totally alert and oriented and was there for rehab. the reality is the only people who had the right to know were her nurses that took care of her and her physician.

as far as worrying about the aids not using standard precautions, yes, it should be addressed. like i said in my previous post, i would say something to your instructor and your instructor only. talking to someone who works at the facility is not your place because, as emergencynurse stated, you are a guest there. don't ruin your welcome.

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i would deff. report this, people are getting affected and that is not a sanitary environment for you or for anyone else. if i were you, i would keep washing my hands and keep hand sanitizer around at all times. act like everyone in that place has mrsa whatever that is... so you are a cna? i would like to get into the medical field. i was reseraching lpn program at palm beach community college, but i was just thinking, should i go for cna before lpn? is it cna, then lpn, then rn? i live in florida. hey get back to me, please, tell me about the cna classes, what to do to get in the program.

thanks

mrsa stands for methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus. the term is used to describe a number of strains of the bacteria, staphylococcus aureus, that are resistant to a number of antibiotics, including methicillin and if i'm correct it spreads through contact, unless its in the respritory system in that case it would become air born

also it is completly up to you which one you wanna go for first. i chose to do cna first so i can make money while going to school, although its probably going to be hard. then hopefully by next fall i will be in school for lpn then after that for rn :) also different places offer cna classes just depends where you live, some hospitals will and some nursing homes will. i found my classes in the classified section in the paper, it was a a little place that was just for certificates. which ever one you go for you will have to have a tb test and a physical and whatever else your state requires. if i where you i would get online a search for cna classes in your area. my cna class was pretty compact but passed it with flying colors after i get done with my procedure book and clinicals i will schedule a time to take my state test when i pass that i will become certified. just remember that almost every state is different when it comes to this stuff :)

good luck!

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as a matter of fact, i am in indiana. hipaa law - need to know basis. it's a serious violation with serious penalties to give out private patient information to a cna who does not need to know it in order to their job. this includes infectious diseases.

if this is true then why do they put this stuff on their care plans? sounds to me like this facility goes against a lot of state regulation. how are we as students suppose to learn what is right and wrong when we are learning and watching everything that goes against this.

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