Mrsa!!

november17, ASN, RN · Nov 10, 2007

Yea. I've been educating everyone I can about MRSA lately- especially over the past month or so. It's just tabloid tactics by the media. Unfortunately most people believe the hype over it and think it's some kind of boogieman.

Where's my skin infections? Oh yea...I wash my hands a lot and eat a healthy diet. I guarantee I've got MRSA all up my nose and god knows where else.

Scrubby · Nov 10, 2007

Last year i had an IM shot and developed quite a large abscess which was infected with MRSA>

I don't know to this day why this happened but i was not allowed to work until the wound had healed.

If i had to go to hospital now i would have to be isolated until i was cleared...

steelcityrn, RN · Nov 10, 2007

Watch 60 minutes if you can this sunday. Leslie Stahl will be doing a story on mrsa and its my own town. The county medical doctor will be on, he pretty much says you can scrub the high school gyms down daily, but that will not prevent to spread of mrsa. He says its all about constant handwashing and not sharing equipment. I currently have a homecare patient with mrsa in bilateral heel decubes and vre in his urine. This guy went into the hospital with a cva and came out with alot more. I feel the nurses are doing a great job with hand washing and gloving with each patient. I feel more could be done about the visitors, clergy, physicians, lab tech's/phlebs, housekeeping ect....All need to be more educated and monitored to prevent this. Once you have it, its your to keep. If you become immuno-compromised it can rear its ugly head. Its about the biggest fear today about being in a hospital.

usyankee · Nov 11, 2007

I was spit in the eyes twice by a patient. I told the director of nurses and she did not direct me to get checked out. Subsequently, I realized that this patient has MRSA as a past history.

She is not on isolation, and apparently if colonized (whatever that truly means) a patient comes off isolation. However, since then a patient who had been colonized is back on precautions after testing positive for MRSA. So, if anyone thinks that a patient who is "colonized" is safe, they are not.

NursingAgainstdaOdds · Nov 11, 2007

Frankly I think there is some good to come out of the MRSA scare, as it is helping Americans to become more aware of antibiotic resistance.

RNfaster · Nov 11, 2007

C'mon. You didn't pay enough attention in microbiology class. Most of us DON'T have MRSA. MRSA is very different from Staphylococcus aureus.

Less than one percent of the U.S. population is colonized with MRSA. Only 32 percent of the U.S. population are colonized with staph. See http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dhqp/ar_mrsa_surveillanceFS.html - "Approximately 32% (89.4 million persons) and 0.8% (2.3 millions persons) of the U.S. population is colonized with S. aureus and MRSA respectively."

I INITIALLY MISWROTE THE BOLDED ITEM IN THE ABOVE PARAGRAPH AS MRSA...was typing too fast... It should be (and is now) "less than 32 percent of the U.S. population are colonized with staph." Noting here as David C. quoted me later in the thread.

I don't mean to imply that MRSA should be taken lightly. Not at all. I definitely think MRSA should be respected. But I think we should be accurate about how widely it is spread in the general population and other populations. David C. notes that rates are higher in LTC facilities, etc.

SuesquatchRN, BSN, RN · Nov 11, 2007

C'mon. You didn't pay enough attention in microbiology class. Most of us DON'T have MRSA. MRSA is very different from Staphylococcus aureus.

Huh? MRSA IS staph. Methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus.

:trout:

RNfaster · Nov 11, 2007

Huh? MRSA IS staph. Methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus.
:trout:

Yeah, SueSquatch, MRSA is a type of especially virulent S. aureus. All S. aureus is NOT MRSA. I would not worry very much about being colonized with S. aureus, but I'd be very worried about being colonized with MRSA.

I really should have used different wording. But my point is still accurate and backed up with recent scientific data.

It kills me that healthcare workers say most of us are colonized with MRSA. We are not. Most of us aren't even colonized with S. aureus.

Tweety, BSN, RN · Nov 11, 2007

It's interesting that MRSA has been around a long time and now it's suddenly a public health crisis.

A few months ago I got a MRSA infection in my elbow from a bug/spider bite. The cellulitis was wicked but I fought it off with po antibiodics and an I&D of the wound, and avoid hospitalization or superimposed infections elsewhere. The NP also asked me to treat my nares with bactroban.

I kind of felt like a leper because people judge you "don't you wash your hands?".

core0 · Nov 11, 2007

C'mon. You didn't pay enough attention in microbiology class. Most of us DON'T have MRSA. MRSA is very different from Staphylococcus aureus.
Less than one percent of the U.S. population is colonized with MRSA. Only 32 percent of the U.S. population are colonized with MRSA. See http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dhqp/ar_mrsa_surveillanceFS.html - "Approximately 32% (89.4 million persons) and 0.8% (2.3 millions persons) of the U.S. population is colonized with S. aureus and MRSA respectively."

However the colonization rates in LTCs are much higher. Up to 35% in some cases. Most LTC have at least one patient that is colonized.

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/417452_1

MRSA in the community is not the problem. MRSA in the hospital and LTC is a real problem. Antibiotic resistant microbes are the bigger problem. We have a patient with both VRE and an extended spectrum beta-lactamase. There is another post here about testing all ER patients for MRSA and treating colonized patients. I am not sure how effective that strategy is but you could definitely make the case for LTC patients. Also this strategy is defeated if good hand washing practices are not followed.

David Carpenter, PA-C

CoffeeRTC, BSN, RN · Nov 11, 2007

Steelcity....I'm getting sick of the TV scares. Forgot to watch that story.

Working in LTC....we have quite a few colonized and at any given time a few actively being treated.

12+ yrs ago, while in school I remember siting in micro hearing scary stories of the super bugs MRSA and VRE...I also sat in the front row and was aways the ginea pig...I was swabed in the nares and sure enough....Positive.