Pregnancy and CMV patients

Nurses General Nursing

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I am an LPN(will be RN soon..) working on a busy med surg/tele floor at a VA hospital. I have only been working here for a few weeks but found out I am pregnant. I am also new to nursing in general.:)

Anyway, the other day I noticed one of the patients I had cared for previously was being treated with Valcyte. CMV rang in my head and I instantly began to panic(and haven't stopped!) I looked through his computerized chart and CMV wasn't listed as his active "problems" or diagnosis. It did some info in the notes stating that he was admitted with known CMV colitis.

I have a few questions. Do you think it wasn't listed as a current diagnosis because he is no longer contagious(or considered to have active CMV) and he is just being treated with this antiviral for maintenance? The MD notes stated that he would continue for 1 month on the antiviral. Also, if he is taking the antiviral, is he no longer contagious(or as contagious)? I believe he has been taking it for at least a few weeks. Lastly, what are the chances that I have contracted the virus? The patient coughs a lot so obviously I am worried about the droplets. I have read that CMV is not highly contagious and as long as standard precautions are followed, all should be okay. He is also on isolation for MRSA in the nares so everytime I have worked with him(twice) I have been gowned up with gloves. No mask though. I practice very good hand hygiene and although he coughs a lot, I have never been super close when he is coughing. I don't think CMV is airborne...

I haven't told anyone at work about my pregnancy because I was hoping to wait until the first trimester is over. I have 2 other children so I do realize that my chances of being exposed to CMV in the past are high. I am just completely freaking out. I was tested 7 years ago before my daughter was born and I had no CMV antibodies.

Any input would help!!

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The mrsa isolation surely helped you because you were extra careful. I work in the NICU and we don't have any special precautions for possible cmv positive infants. Just gloves. Our pregnant nurses do try to avoid (swap assignments if possible) them until their culture comes back. You need to consult your OB if only for your peace of mind. Surely you have antibodies now,having small children.

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Specializes in NICU, PICU, educator.

If you used universal precautions you are fine. We do swap out our pregnant nurses at our attendings request.

This is why when you are pregnant, you need to tell your co-workers, because there are situations that you shouldn't take care of certain patients. Just a pet peeve of mine.

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Specializes in Neuro ICU and Med Surg.

I agree you at least need to tell your charge nurse so that you aren't assigned to patients you shouldn't have.

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I realize this is a concerning issue for you. I do have a couple of questions.

You said this was a patient you cared for previously. Does that mean you no longer had any interaction with him? How was it you found out what meds he was taking?

If he was your patient, then no problem. If he wasn't, then looking through his medical record is a big problem for you.

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Only like a true nurse to jump on another nurse in time of need. LOL! Seriously, nice. Why even answer at all if only to try to stir the pot?

First of all, he was a patient of mine multiple times on and off throughout the weeks of orientation. I stated that I was an LPN which means I always have an RN covering me. I am also on orientation which means I am following a preceptor. When I am assigned a nurse to work with in the morning, we get 4 patients. I usually take 2 to completely concentrate on. So I only pass meds on two although I am *technically* covering 4(for orientation purposes). I am allowed to view the medical records of all of the patients I am working with. On the day I was referring to, I looked up all of the meds and through all of the charts of the patient my RN preceptor was assigned. We all rotate patients throughout the week and I had already been in his charts previously.

Thank you though for your valuable input on the original topic. It's true what they say, nurses looooooove to eat their own.

For the other posters, thank you for your info. I understand it may be a peeve to not tell coworkers of pregnancy but when you are only 6 weeks pregnant, have had miscarriages in the past, have not seen the doctor yet, and don't know your coworkers yet, it's hard to just break out with, "Hey, I'm pregnant." We haven't even told our families yet.

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Easy, tiger. Not trying to stir the pot at all. I have personally seen a number of nurses (lpns and rns) get fired - no appeal, no counseling- for hipaa violations.

Don't really care about how your facility handles the assignments- I'm just pointing out that it exists. But if you know better than I, then no problem.

Good luck with everything!

PS What makes you think I'm a nurse?

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'Cause you're on "allnurses.com". No HIPAA violations here. We read charts on a "need to know" basis. I needed to know as I am pregnant and potentially helping the RN assigned to the patient. I knew his meds 'cause I passed them last week. Just didn't realize it at the time.

Still not really sure why you answered at all or why I am wasting time answering you. LOL.

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