Pregnant and Working with Respiratory MRSA

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I am a pregnant LPN working in long term care as an agency nurse. One of the facilities I work at has a resident with respiratory MRSA under contact isolation precautions. The nurse in my doctor's office said it is unsafe for me to be in the room even if proper precautions are being taken. One of the RN's at this facility has told me that she has never heard of this and is refusing to make accomodations for me, going as far as trying to replace me for all the shifts I have lined up for the coming month. All the other RN's have been very accomodating. This particular RN is tight with the DON and I haven't been called back since. Has anyone else heard that pregnant nurses should not work with MRSA patients?

How about TB patients? I think the reason why preggys should avoid them is that they can't be treated well with high-spectrum antibiotics, anti-TB drugs while preggy. That would be affecting the fetus.

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I think that R.N. and others who won't accomodate you, should think about you and your baby's health. If people have something that is contagious that is a red flag to possibly stay away from them. Just for you and your baby's sake. To try to keep you healthy as possible and away from hazardous things if you can stay away from them though..

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yeh, Varicella and Measels, man that was scary when i was preggo we would get unvaccinated kids sometimes and if they had an unexplained ash i was always scred to death, plus my hosp didnt have proper neg pressure iso rooms for some of those things, and i was always relieved when those pts left the floor

We don't have isolation rooms period. Not only that, but they keep all the isolation garb IN the room so you have to enter the room in order to garb up. That's what really has me concerned. No matter what type of isolation the resident is in, they keep everything in the room. This lady has respiratory MRSA and has a nasty cough. I don't think anyone, not just pregnant women, but anyone should have to enter her room to garb up. They don't put anything in the hall for us because this is their home and we shouldn't make them feel bad by isolating them. What about everyone else's health? Don't the other residents have rights? They don't even shut the door to her room and we have several residents on the floor that wander in and out of all the rooms on the unit. Is it fair to expose them? I think this has repercussions way beyone a pregnant nurse refusing to enter the room. I was leery before I knew I was pregnant. I think their isolation policies need to be seriuosly overhauled. I even tried asking for garb to keep at the desk so I had something outside the room and was told no. Also, my boss at the agency called the facility to complain and was told this particular RN always treats agency staff badly and she was called on the carpet before the administrator. She also gave a staff CNA who was pregnant grief about not entering the room, and she complained as well. Apparently the policy is that the facility must abide by the doctors orders, or request I not return. This RN has no such authority and I have been accomodated ever since.

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Someone said: "I think that R.N. and others who won't accomodate you, should think about you and your baby's health..."

Wrong. That's like the old saying, "Friends don't let friends drive drunk."

A REAL friend doesn't get drunk and transfer personal responsibility to another "friend." Be an adult. If you want to get drunk, you're on your own.

If you want to have a baby, YOU'RE ON YOUR OWN. You make your choices. You want to be a nurse and be pregnant? Don't expect your employer or fellow employees to help you out. Be responsible for your own actions. Don't get pregnant and show up to work saying, "You have to accommodate me." Don't screw fellow employees with your inabilities. Ya' wanna' have a baby? Make sure you're financially secure FIRST and then QUIT. You owe it to the kid anyway.

I'm tired of having to work with pregnant, slacking co-workers who won't lift patients or cover MY lunch (MRSA patients), same as I'm covering for them.

I'm not a popular poster here....

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Someone said: "I think that R.N. and others who won't accomodate you, should think about you and your baby's health..."

Wrong. That's like the old saying, "Friends don't let friends drive drunk."

A REAL friend doesn't get drunk and transfer personal responsibility to another "friend." Be an adult. If you want to get drunk, you're on your own.

If you want to have a baby, YOU'RE ON YOUR OWN. You make your choices. You want to be a nurse and be pregnant? Don't expect your employer or fellow employees to help you out. Be responsible for your own actions. Don't get pregnant and show up to work saying, "You have to accommodate me." Don't screw fellow employees with your inabilities. Ya' wanna' have a baby? Make sure you're financially secure FIRST and then QUIT. You owe it to the kid anyway.

I'm tired of having to work with pregnant, slacking co-workers who won't lift patients or cover MY lunch (MRSA patients), same as I'm covering for them.

I'm not a popular poster here....

You know, good nurses need compassion. I feel bad for anyone who has to work with the likes of you. I hope you are never in a position to need help from your fellow workers, because if you act like this, you're not likely to get it. For your information, I AM financially secure, but I choose to keep working. Why should I have to sit at home? How dare you decide what is right for others or tell anyone what they owe their child? Because people like you say so? Give me a break. You could be working short staffed if everyone chose to quit, so what's the big deal about helping out with one patient? And what about nurses who are pregnant by accident or those who can afford their child but only if they work? Who made you the judge and jury? I'm glad the majority of nurses don't share your opinion. Perhaps you should look back over your nursing fundamentals book and read about compassion--that's one lesson you apparently missed. No wonder you're not a popular poster.

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Specializes in Med-Surg.

I wish there would be some sort of standard. But I think it's o.k. to take care of MRSA patients. The idea behind the iso is the nurse doesn't take the mrsa out of the room and spread it to other immunocompromised patients, such as your elderly patients. If nurses were at risk for anything, we would have all been dropping like flies, or the hospitals would be full of nurses sick with mrsa infections. (I'm not saying it doesn't happen though.)

I would say if you are not immunocomprised yourself and are having a normal healthy pregnancy it's o.k.

Our ID department doesn't allow pregant women to care for tb patients.

I work on a unit that has quite a bit of iso patients and we try to spread them out equally, including to the pregnant ones.

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Specializes in micu ccu sicu nsicu.

Deathnurse, you are evil. What goes around comes around, just remember that. One day you might not be PREGNANT (because I bet you hate kids) but you may very likely hurt your back and need help turning YOUR patients. OR maybe one of your 400 lb patients will fall on you and squish you, and none of your fellow nurses will come to your aid because they will all be pregnant :chuckle

I see no harm in cutting the prego nurses some slack when it comes to isolation (if it can be helped), because I would appreciate the same consideration if I were the prego one. We should try to take care of each other. COMPASSION, Deathnurse. Geez, maybe you neeed to retire.

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