Last night I read that the CDC is planning to transport at least one American Citizen with the ebola virus to Atlanta for treatment. Driving around today my car radio kept assaulting me with experts soothingly asserting that there is no reason for the American population to fear exposure to the virus. To a man they all went on to say that only healthcare workers were likely to be exposed.
If you're a healthcare worker raise your hand. Are you angry? Do you feel like you're being considered expendable? Less than fully human? Are you worried?
I don't favor deliberately bringing ANY known infected person across the ocean to this continent. OK, Ebola is not all that easy to contract. It's a lot harder to contract if it is thousands of miles away.
The virus is spread by contact with infected body fluids. So lets say a nurses aid in a hospital comes in contact with those body fluids (diarrhea, emesis, blood, whatever. Accidents happen even if you take precautions.) What is to stop her from spreading the virus to her husband or child? What is to stop a child infected in this way from spreading it within his classroom?
I have always been able to deal with the concept of ebola by reminding myself that it exists on another continent. Perhaps I'm being selfish, but I believe that anyone sickened in Africa should be treated in Africa. We don't need to help diseases spread around the globe any more than we already do.
NIMBY. In this case, NIMBY. I'm not a NIMBY kind of girl, but this terrifies me.
What do you think? What would you do if you were assigned a patient know to be infected with Ebola?
Yes, that was a little snarky of me, but I am not taking away anyone's opportunity to express their opinion just by being a little snarky, LOL. I just thought it odd that she quoted me to express her opinion when I had clearly stated that it wasn't about whether or not I'd care for someone with Ebola- and I have NOT gone to any lengths really to explain whether or not I would. It didn't really make sense to me to quote me to go on and on about that. Plus I found her post to be somewhat incoherent. I guess it all just brought out the snark in me. I'll never do it again, I promise, since nobody EVER gets snarky around here (yeah, that's more snark- I guess I'm just a horrible person...a horrible person with a tiny member...er uh shotgun).
Making a post and quoting to address ONE point, and then I continued to post...such my faux pas, I guess. *shrugs*
No one else thought it was incoherent, btw. They understood my flow enough.
Yes, that was a little snarky of me, but I am not taking away anyone's opportunity to express their opinion just by being a little snarky, LOL. I just thought it odd that she quoted me to express her opinion when I had clearly stated that it wasn't about whether or not I'd care for someone with Ebola- and I have NOT gone to any lengths really to explain whether or not I would. It didn't really make sense to me to quote me to go on and on about that. Plus I found her post to be somewhat incoherent. I guess it all just brought out the snark in me. I'll never do it again, I promise, since nobody EVER gets snarky around here (yeah, that's more snark- I guess I'm just a horrible person...a horrible person with a tiny member...er uh shotgun).
I may be wrong but I think that the reference to your presumably teeny tiny shotgun was a joke about protecting yourself against a microscopic little thing such a virus with a weapon, not a disguised phallic put down
I may be wrong but I think that the reference to your presumably teeny tiny shotgun was a joke about protecting yourself against a microscopic little thing such a virus with a weapon, not a disguised phallic put down
Oh, LOL!!! I totally didn't get that! That's pretty funny, actually.
I think I've managed to read every post here but I'm still going to apologize in advance if I'm repeating anything. I work with an ID physician and we had a very interesting conversation today. The human side of me says we should take care of our ill countrymen and that they will receive the best care stateside. But he brought up a few salient and disturbing points. He doesn't think the health care workers taking care of these patients are really carrying that much risk. This is a new thing. Everyone will be paying minute attention to details. PPE will be worn appropriately. Things will be scrubbed. We haven't gotten blase about this disease yet. What worries him more are a couple of other things. If you look at the CDC website they are pretty clear in stating that they really don't know how the virus is spread. They are reasonably certain it's spread by direct contact but they stop short of saying it's the only way to become infected. There has been little discussion of what will be done with the patients once they recover. How long will they shed the virus? It's been reported that it takes up to seven weeks AFTER recovery (found in semen 61 days after the patient was asymptomatic). But how will they know the patient is entirely clear. Will they check every bodily fluid? Do we know if recovered patients have a viral reservoir? Think of patients with Herpes. They have a viral illness that periodically re-appears. We don't know how Ebola behaves. Nobody really does. Or at least they aren't sharing what they do know. This is scary stuff. I argued with him that our advanced healthcare would surely decrease the mortality rate. He pointed out that most of the countries in Africa are about the size of one of our states. What if 278 patients in your state became critically ill with Ebola. The healthcare system would soon be overwhelmed. I don't mean to be a fear-monger but the stuff we really don't know is much scarier than the stuff we do.
Specializes in Psych, Corrections, Med-Surg, Ambulatory.
Thank you but I do stand by my opinion. I work with nurses daily who are just merely concerned about what the new healthcare bill will do to there "Private time". I wonder how effective as a nurse can you be when the focus remains in "private time". I meant no harm its just you guys are where I'm fighting to get to. I've worked in healthcare since I was 17 years old and the change in the behaviors in nurses are appalling. I understand workload viruses and thankless patients but as nurses and future nurses if the patients don't have us who will they have
I'm very impressed that when (or if) you do become a nurse, you will not be concerned with your "private time". Drop us a line in a couple decades and let us know how that worked for you.
Specializes in Psych, Corrections, Med-Surg, Ambulatory.
I definitely don't equate nursing with martyrdom. The way I see it, if I don't take care of myself, I can't take care of anyone else. To recklessly throw myself in harm's way is doing a disservice to myself and those I care for. I understand the risks associated with working in the ER, that I might be exposed to infectious diseases, knowingly or unknowingly.
To me, this is a completely different question than whether or not we should bring Ebola to the US. To me, it's a public health issue, not an ethical or moral question about how far we should go as nurses to care for the sick. I think that's up to each individual nurse to determine for his or her self.
Yes, this is my biggest issue. There's lots of stuff out there waiting to find us. When you're a nurse, it can find you even more easily. Most of us get that. But to deliberately transport a deadly disease across the ocean makes me very uneasy.
I'm not saying the infected people don't deserve treatment. I'm not saying the hospital and staff aren't as prepared as they can be. It just seems counter-intuitive to deliberately transport something. I really hope and pray this doesn't go horribly awry.
I remember when the first HIV patients starting showing up and some did not want to treat them or even get close to them. The ebola situation is different due to the mortality potential but I would accept the patient IF the proper isolation precautions could be enforced. Pray it doesn't come to that here!
Specializes in criticalcare, nursing administration.
Three points for consideration :
1.Caring for ALL patients is ethically a part of our role. I remember during the appearance of AIDS , several of my colleagues refused to care for these patients. This is slippery slope thinking at its' worst. What if the patients were your mother? Your son ? You ???
2. We now live in a global world. Diseases can , and do, cross boundaries. We need to really explore how prepared we are, and to plan for our response to ANY disseminated disease. It is only a matter of time before there WILL be a global health crisis. These patients are simply highlighting our challenges.
3. These caregivers are AMERICAN. We fly stroke and trauma patients home for care, as we should. This is no different.
LadyFree28, BSN, LPN, RN
8,429 Posts
Making a post and quoting to address ONE point, and then I continued to post...such my faux pas, I guess. *shrugs*
No one else thought it was incoherent, btw. They understood my flow enough.
Again, positing my POV, just as you were.