A few years back (probably more like 10) when the prisons really started regularly doing ppds, we ran into this issue. The best I can recall, we obtained the information from our State Dept of Health. Why? Well, we were trying to learn if it was nurse error when several inmates showed up positive when the year before they had been negative. Of course this caused quite a stir. What we learned was this....If you have a person that has not had a TB test for years, they may not react because of the body's immune system. In short, it has gone to sleep as far as TB exposure. To retest those people at a later date, awakens the immune response (memory cells)and may give a more accurate picture of a past exposure. Indeed we found that the only ones this had happen to were those in the 50-60 age group, who had never been tested, or had not been tested since they were young, and indeed had been exposed to a grandparent, parent, etc as a child. The site you were given by mollyj on the CDC website is excellent. I may add that I work in an Infectious Disease clinic with a 100% immune compromised clientele, and we do not use the 2-step, nor do we use anergy testing any longer (this rarily is done). Hope this helps you. You may want to check under Infectious Diseases with the CDC, since TB has greatly increased with the growing numbers of HIV/AIDS infected persons.
Having worked in Corrections 12yrs. I was called often to testify for the State. But only once for myself directly. A valuable lesson learned...Document! Document! Document! Even after reading my own notes, I had no recall of the incident. The answer that I gave most often was "I have no recall" and when necesary I added, "if that's what I charted, that's what happened". These 2 phrases were given to me directly by the State'Attorneys. Told me not to guess at what I would have done, just admit to no recall. The wild part of this case...On the way home, the entire incident came back to me; with even more details than was brought up in the trial. Either way..We won the lawsuit! Remember that the inmate is the one that has to prove wrong doing and this is were your charting saves you. Good Luck! Have other pointers I will gladly share, feel free to e-mail me.
I like this topic sense I describes me totally. But hey, what ever happened to the plain truth...I prefer the old school. I am just a little sick of this sugar-coating. I took it as a great compliment today when someone said, "you are the only one here that is straight-up". I like just being me instead of worrying about what others want me to be. If being honest and free with my opinion is brash, brazen, and b*tchy...not to mention politically incorrect...then yep thats me. I have been wrongly accused of being insensitive and of lacking tact. This new form of communication makes it a lot more difficult to judge ones honest opinion about anything. I am hopeless...so go ahead and add my name to that "Difficult People" list.
A few years back (probably more like 10) when the prisons really started regularly doing ppds, we ran into this issue. The best I can recall, we obtained the information from our State Dept of Health. Why? Well, we were trying to learn if it was nurse error when several inmates showed up positive when the year before they had been negative. Of course this caused quite a stir. What we learned was this....If you have a person that has not had a TB test for years, they may not react because of the body's immune system. In short, it has gone to sleep as far as TB exposure. To retest those people at a later date, awakens the immune response (memory cells)and may give a more accurate picture of a past exposure. Indeed we found that the only ones this had happen to were those in the 50-60 age group, who had never been tested, or had not been tested since they were young, and indeed had been exposed to a grandparent, parent, etc as a child. The site you were given by mollyj on the CDC website is excellent. I may add that I work in an Infectious Disease clinic with a 100% immune compromised clientele, and we do not use the 2-step, nor do we use anergy testing any longer (this rarily is done). Hope this helps you. You may want to check under Infectious Diseases with the CDC, since TB has greatly increased with the growing numbers of HIV/AIDS infected persons.
Having worked in Corrections 12yrs. I was called often to testify for the State. But only once for myself directly. A valuable lesson learned...Document! Document! Document! Even after reading my own notes, I had no recall of the incident. The answer that I gave most often was "I have no recall" and when necesary I added, "if that's what I charted, that's what happened". These 2 phrases were given to me directly by the State'Attorneys. Told me not to guess at what I would have done, just admit to no recall. The wild part of this case...On the way home, the entire incident came back to me; with even more details than was brought up in the trial. Either way..We won the lawsuit! Remember that the inmate is the one that has to prove wrong doing and this is were your charting saves you. Good Luck! Have other pointers I will gladly share, feel free to e-mail me.
I like this topic sense I describes me totally. But hey, what ever happened to the plain truth...I prefer the old school. I am just a little sick of this sugar-coating. I took it as a great compliment today when someone said, "you are the only one here that is straight-up". I like just being me instead of worrying about what others want me to be. If being honest and free with my opinion is brash, brazen, and b*tchy...not to mention politically incorrect...then yep thats me. I have been wrongly accused of being insensitive and of lacking tact. This new form of communication makes it a lot more difficult to judge ones honest opinion about anything. I am hopeless...so go ahead and add my name to that "Difficult People" list.