Necrotizing fasciitis aka flesh eating virus

[mcnasty]

We got a new admit at our nursing home. with necrotizing fasciitis. when i came in for my shift to get report, everyone was all bug-eyed and stiffly shaking there heads like "uh-huh. not me. i'm not going in that room"... the CNA who had the assignment said she 'COULD NOT GO IN THE ROOM BECAUSE SHE HAS A COMPROMISED IMMUNE SYSTEM". .....

huh? funny. i never heard her speak of this before. and, um, wouldn't that be a little piece of information you would have to share with the interviewer when the application says 'DO YOU HAVE ANY CONDITION OR DISABILITY THAT WOULD PROHIBIT YOU FROM DOING ANY PART OF THIS JOB?'

i certainly remember that question when i interviewed there.

okay so after switching assignments around and people just flat out refusing, guess who manned up and took the assignment. me.

because not to generalize, but lets just say i work in a part of the south where places are rife with ignorance. about many subjects. you might as well have told these people that there was a 3 headed people eating monster in there waiting for its next victim. so i double gown, double glove, put on a mask, etc. and give the resident a bath, change her, feed her etc... and, because NO ONE else would dare to enter the room, this took an EXTREMELY LONG TIME. in fact, the wound itself was not even covered all the way and the sheets were wet with weeping from the wound. i felt like i needed a silkwood shower after that. i had to tell the nurse that the bandage needed changing. anyway, so its seems like now that they have found a cna who is brave enough to do the assignment, they are actually pulling me off of other halls to do the bath, etc.

i thought about talking to the nurse managers, or DON about it, but believe me, they were not exactly jumping in provide care for her either. it was really disappointing.

[anesbound]

That's funny because that is exactly the type of mentality I encountered in the OR. None of the nurses or CRNA staff wanted to enter into the room of a neurosurg patient that had creutzfeldt jacobs disease. I was volunteered for the job and gladly accepted. I mean come on people. It's not like you are going to get the brain in your mouth. Get real! I wish there were more nurses like you out there!

[fuzzywuzzy, CNA]

Oh geez. Isn't that what soap, water, and PPE are for?