Nurses, Come to work if you are asymptomatic COVID-19 positive

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

"Nurses, Come to work if you are asymptomatic COVID-19 positive"

That's the message heard from North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum at a press conference 11/09/2020  due to the states COVID-19 surge and shortage of healthcare personnel.

Time to educate Gov. Burgum. why this is NOT a good idea, even if  limited to working on COVID positive unit.  NOT ALL STAFF IN A COVID UNIT HAVE ILLNESS!

One can be asymptomatic day tested, have symptoms next day. Needlessly exposing other employees to possibly different COVID strain.

 

Fox News Digital  11/11/2020

Nurses with COVID-19 allowed to work in North Dakota amid staffing shortage

Quote

“Just in the last few days, our hospitalizations, due to COVID, rose by another 10 percent to 254 [hospitalizations], and that’s 60 percent higher than just four weeks ago when we had 158 individuals hospitalized due to COVID,” Burgum said. “We also have seen over the weekend record days Friday, Saturday, Sunday and today really strong new active cases.”..

...“It took us seven months to get to 5,000, and it took us three weeks to get to 10,000,” Burgum said.

...Burgum announced that asymptomatic COVID-19 positive health care workers could return to work.

“This applies only to COVID positive health care workers who do not have symptoms, and they are allowed only to work in COVID units around patients who already have the virus,” Burgum said....

 

[verene, MSN]

I saw this article (or a similar one) and was absolutely horrified. Very glad my hospital and state are taking COVID seriously and my hospital had fairly strong infection prevention practices prior to all of this. 

We had our first patient COVID case, and first instance of in hospital spread in the last couple of months. The whole hospital went into lock-down and in less than 7 days every employee and patient on the campus had been tested for COVID and all positive results contract traced - with staff placed on paid leave and patients placed on a dedicated quarantine unit.  We caught cases very, very quickly. There was no further spread and we were authorized by the public health department to come off precautions/quarantine procedures as a hospital sooner than anticipated because our interventions did such a great job of preventing further spread beyond the initial small cluster of cases. 

To see the contrast in reactions from how my hospital handled this to how North Dakota is NOT is scary. They are going to have a LOT of sick healthcare workers, a LOT of ill patients, and both cases and deaths which could have been prevented if they took strong infection prevention precautions.  I would be extremely worried about staffing shortages and hospitals being unable to meet need for care. 

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

Unlike other states, South and North Dakota never fully closed down, both Republican governors in each state resisted every stay-at-home order; Neither state adopted a mask mandate.   Republican Gov. Kristi Noem welcomed President Trump to their South Dakota July 4th, 2020 Mount Rushmore Fireworks Celebration and the Sturgis S.D. Motorcycle rally  (450,000  attendees) held first 10 day's in August despite 60% towns residents wanted it cancelled per news reports. Sentiment  of attendees: Risk their willing to accept.   Karen

Vox.com  11/09/2020

Why North and South Dakota are suffering the worst Covid-19 epidemics in the US

Quote

The third surge of Covid-19 cases is leading to worsening outbreaks across the United States. But two states — North Dakota and South Dakota — have coronavirus outbreaks that far surpass the rest of America....

...Overall, America is seeing 35 cases per 100,000 people as of November 9. South Dakota, meanwhile, has 137 per 100,000, and North Dakota has 177 per 100,000. The Dakotas were the first two states in the US to surpass 100 cases per 100,000 people.

North and South Dakota report the highest and second-highest, respectively, Covid-19 death rate over the previous week out of all states, Washington, DC, and US territories.

And the percent of tests coming back positive, which is used by experts to gauge testing capacity, is more than 16 percent for North Dakota. In South Dakota, it’s an astonishing 54 percent. The recommended maximum is 5 percent. ...

 

 

[turtlesRcool]

No way is this a safe practice. Yes, it's an emergency measure, but it's ridiculous to ask CV19+ nurses to come to work before you mandate the general public take basic precautions like putting on a dang mask in public.  Speaking for myself and what I've seen from my colleague, most of us are willing to accept some personal risk to take care of our patients. But it's a kick in the teeth to ask nurses to be heroes when you're not willing to implement any measures to actually slow community spread, simply because those would be unpopular and inconvenience some in the general public. Maybe I'm reading it wrong, but everything I can see on ND's website is at the level of "guidance" and "recommendations" - nothing is mandated or enforced.

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

North Dakota Nurses Association calls for mask mandate, reject policy allowing COVID-19-positive workers to stay on job. 

North Dakota Nurses Association Statement on Asymptomatic COVID-19 Positive Nurses Providing Care

 

[Kooky Korky, BSN, RN]

So many people just don't understand.  A couple of teachers I know, educated people who educate others say that they fear contracting the virus in their work at school.  Yet they want to hold big gatherings at TG, Xmas, etc.  

They just don't seem to get that having too many people in their homes to be able to safely socially distance, even if wearing masks, is not a smart idea.

One says her county and local city gov do not mandate socially distancing and / or masks.  Nor do they tell her how many people you can have at your home.  Therefore, it is OK to have gatherings, including elderly relatives.  I try to explain, to no avail.

I will  be so glad when the herd becomes immune, due either to surviving the illness, being vaxxed, or dying off.  (Trump's idea). 

Trump is sooooo worried about the economy and his own economic survival that he calls the learned, experienced Dr. Fauci an idiot and a disaster.  Dear God.

How do we get people to understand that some people with the virus might never turn a hair, as we used to say.  That is some could be asymptomatic while others are mildly ill, moderately ill, seriously ill, and some might die?   Like so many illnesses, there is a gamut, a continuum of illness with coronavirus infection.