MRSA Patient Vomited in my ears.....no one cares.....

[OkiHauteMomma]

Hi. I am a current CAN/Nursing Student and tonight a patient with MRSA vomited on my face (which dripped into my eyes.) I accept that this is a part of healthcare but I cannot accpet how uncaring the charge nurse and other nursing staff was. No one knew WHERE the eye wash was!!! I have only been working a month and had a full day of precepting.

All they told me was go to the ER. The ER did not irrigate my eyes because I should have done it upstairs.

After he vomited I changed clothes, washed my face with the antibac handsoap and went to the ER. Doc infomed me that he couldn't do anything unless I showed signs of MRSA. I understand that but I am very concerned because it is in my eyes. I am at home now, cleaned up with some surgical soap and dried off.

What can I do now? What do I need to look out for? Can I loose my vision? My job? Will I get MRSA?

[MunoRN, RN]

You're verging a little on medical advice, but speaking just as a workplace hazard I honestly wouldn't be hugely concerned about the MRSA myself. First, you don't find "MRSA" in the stomach, well you sort of do in that all enterococci are resistant to the methicillin family, but it's not the same as "MRSA". Everyone is colonized with bacteria, and if some of that bacteria is resistant to methicillin antibiotics then we call it MRSA, but that doesn't mean that someone is oozing MRSA out of every possible place in their body, and it's actually usually localized; in a wound, in the sputum, in skin folds, etc. MRSA infections are treated, simple colonizations or getting some MRSA on you, or even in your eyes, should not be treated with antibiotics.

It got in both ears? I'm curious how that even happened.

[OkiHauteMomma]

I got it in my eyes, not ears. I had raised the patient bed to change his brief and when I returned him to his back he said he was going to be sick. I was trying to raise his head so he wouldn't choke and he faced me a vomited in my face. I wasn't expecting antibotics. I just want to know if any nurses had similar experiences and how it affected them and what I need to look out for. No one at my hospital offered me any advice and employee health will not return until Monday.

You're verging a little on medical advice, but speaking just as a workplace hazard I honestly wouldn't be hugely concerned about the MRSA myself. First, you don't find "MRSA" in the stomach, well you sort of do in that all enterococci are resistant to the methicillin family, but it's not the same as "MRSA". Everyone is colonized with bacteria, and if some of that bacteria is resistant to methicillin antibiotics then we call it MRSA, but that doesn't mean that someone is oozing MRSA out of every possible place in their body, and it's actually usually localized; in a wound, in the sputum, in skin folds, etc. MRSA infections are treated, simple colonizations or getting some MRSA on you, or even in your eyes, should not be treated with antibiotics.

It got in both ears? I'm curious how that even happened.

[MunoRN, RN]

We can't offer any medical advice, if you were seen in the ER you should have gotten some discharge instructions as to what to look out for, which is typically S/S of infection. I think most Nurses have had the experience of getting a patient's bodily fluids/solid matter in places that we would prefer remain free of other people's fluids. It's been all of about 3 hours since I felt the warm, wet sensation between my toes of a patient's bloody GI bleed stool dripping (pouring actually) onto my shoes, so yes, unfortunately this sort of thing happens.

Bob and weave is the only advice I can offer.

[Meriwhen, ASN, BSN, MSN, RN]

You will need to see your healthcare provider as we can not offer medical advice here.

Best of luck.