Pregnant - what should I avoid in patients, what precautions?

[NuNurse<3]

I work in medsurg/oncology. I know I need to avoid chemo, and double glove when dealing with any body fluids of patients who've had radiation but is there anything else I should avoid, or precautions I should take? Thanks.

[Bringonthenight]

Ask your unit educator for a specific list. I would avoid isolation rooms with patients that have shingles, influenza, VRE and CMV. There's plenty more but I would ask for a list and your hospitals policy.

[NJNursing, ASN, RN]

I agree, avoid all isolation patients. We just do it as a courtesy to the preggos on our floor anyway.

[NuNurse<3]

We have alot of contact patients I don't know that I could get a team without any. Also one of our techs is pregnant and she still does everything. I've never seen them give special treatment to the pregnant people before. I have been trying to avoid c-diff, but I did have someone else pass a medthe other day that had pregnancy precautions on it.

[Bringonthenight]

We have alot of contact patients I don't know that I could get a team without any. Also one of our techs is pregnant and she still does everything. I've never seen them give special treatment to the pregnant people before. I have been trying to avoid c-diff but I did have someone else pass a medthe other day that had pregnancy precautions on it.[/quote']

Talk to your unit manager expressing your concerns. in oncology, pregnant nurses have to right to refuse administrating and even nurse a patient on chemo or cytotoxic drugs. I know a pregnant nurse who does not go into any isolation rooms as an extra precaution. It's her baby. We just make a plan as a team to work around it.