So long story short. I put in my notice at my current job (4 days left) and accepted a home care position for 15 hours, in which you are allowed to sleep overnight ( and get paid) basically you’re working 6 hours with the patient.
I've worked with this pt four times this far.
However, last night the pt begin to tell me how he had MRSA in his urine and was hospitalized he reports this being a few years ago. I asked the director ( business owner) she says he only have traces of MRSA, he wasn’t ever on precautions or anything.
I really like this case and pt but now I’m paranoid working there and thing is I have eczema that breaks out on my arms and hands which comes in contact with pts sheet. What should I do?
So basically you hypothesize the cause of this "eczema" is the pt's previous hx of MRSA.
So what should you do? Well you need confirmation of your hypothesis utilizing the methods of scientific investigation.
Umm no I’m saying sometimes I have eczema which cause breaks In my skin, and I know that’s a risk working with him or any other pt. So I’m going to wear long sleeves.
What do you mean by “traces”? Either the urine culture grew out MRSA or it didn’t. Antibiotics very well could have eliminated the infection.
There are thresholds that determine if it's infection vs. colonization by infection control standards; if the patient says "trace," I would suspect it wasn't an overwhelming number.
Where I work, unless the MRSA is in the lungs with pneumonia or can't be contained in a wound dressing for an abscess, for example, we just use standard precautions. Otherwise, we'd do contact precautions if there is a risk (large draining wound, incontinent patient, etc.). But this is after laying eyes on an actual culture result, too.
mzsuccess
425 Posts
Umm no I’m saying sometimes I have eczema which cause breaks In my skin, and I know that’s a risk working with him or any other pt. So I’m going to wear long sleeves.