Mammy1111

I totally agree....once a nurse, always a nurse. I advise family and friends, advocate for them and many others, and read nursing related information and articles all the time. If somebody is in an accident or falls, I'm there! It's in the blood, I swear. So, truthfully, nurses never retire. We just stop getting paychecks.

The problems with MRSA colonized and/or infected Nurses or HCWs. 1. you can spread disease with either condition 2. you don't have infected family members but are constantly exposed to MRSA on your job, yet your employers deny workmans comp for missed work and treatment of MRSA. 3. Ignoring MRSA will not make it go away. You should report your MRSA to your hospital IC department. Refusing to be screened will not help you or your patients. 4. Fight for better prevention of MRSA in your facilities in the form of Active Detection and Isolation. Rapid MRSA screening will allow early or immediate diagnosis of colonization and Isolation and contact precautions can be enacted right away... meaning fewer unprotected exposures for HCWs. If you are a HcW...and need surgery, DEMAND a screening. If you won't do that, then get your doctor to prescribe decolonization (mupirocin in the nares for 5 days and chlorhexidine showers prior to surgery). You still will not know if you are colonized, so the appropriate preoperative antibiotics may not be used. And finally, never ignore precautions and/handwashing.

I am using my knowledge to run my home business educating people on the harmful environmental toxins they have in their homes and the effects it has on their health. Even though I am not actively "nursing" I am still helping people. There is more than one way to be a nurse and the way you have chosen is very honorable.

In 40 years as an RN (not all of them working years) I have reported 2 nurses. One was showing up on the job at midnight, drunk. It wasn't her first time but it was her last time when she came to relieve me. The managers were aware of this and had warned her already. I loved her as a person and I had known her a long time, but I couldnt' pass my assignment off to her when she was in that condition. She was fired. The other was a new grad who was over confident and underqualified. His approach to patients was unprofessional and he was off putting to them. He attempted to tell me what to do and how to do it...as a brand new grad and that was the straw that broke the camels back. I reported him as unsuitable for work in my department and that he needed to sharpen his skills and his approach to patients. I never worked with him again. However, I did read on a later date that his license was withdrawn by the State, so I now know for sure that my instincts about him were correct. He worked hard for his license, but he came on too strong and too confident for an inexperienced nurse. I honestly believed that he would be a danger to patients. We MUST as nurses protect our patients..in is priority. If that involves reporting a coworker who is unsafe, so be it. It is part of our jobs as patient advocates.

The Joint Commission is a membership club with heavy dues. They do inspections and all of the facilities managment teams get in a twit about perfecting things while the inspectors are there. So, all's well while they are being inspected only to return to normal after. In reality, JCAHO does very little to regulate or punish hospitals. The fact that they give warnings to their "members" about the dates they will be there to inspect a facility kind of negates the effectiveness of the organization. Surprise inspections would tell JCAHO what really goes on in their member hospitals, but I have my doubts if they would do much for real change.....ie, recommend safer nursing staff levels.

I'd love to challenge the management to come and work a shift in our shoes, and see them try to flounder through the 12 hours of endless paperwork and crap that they tell us we have to do.It sure would be an eye opener, but of course THAT would never happen.. Actually I did manage to get this to happen a time or two. I worked in a very busy Walk in care at my local hospital years ago. We worked 12 hours shifts and with minimal staff. There was the RN (me), one tech, and a registrar. It was announced that although we were open from 9am to 9pm that after 6pm, I would no longer have a tech. Those last few hours were often times the busiest times we had. So, I told my department head that if there was not going to be a tech to help after 6pm, I was only available from 9am to 6pm. I was a per diem nurse, so I could name my hours. Of course I was the only one to do it, so it didn't change anything, but on a few occasions, the DH couldn't get anyone to cover from 6pm to 9pm. SHE had to cover. I clearly recall one day she came at 6pm all cocky and bossy, and I had all 4 rooms full and several patients in the waiting room. I proceded to give her report. As soon as I finished, she trotted down the hall and demanded help from the ER staff!! The lowly WIC staff nurse couldn't do that, but she could. We were expected to trudge through, no matter how many patients we had. I got my point accross and I never had any more satisfaction about it than when I walked out leaving that bi#@! with a big bunch of patients to care for....even if she used her power to get help! Big time double standard.

That is awesome! I would love to travel all over like that. Maybe someday.

Do nurses ever really retire? Once a nurse, always a nurse!! I'm not talking about money either. I am talking about how we all end up being resources of info for our families and neighbors. I am talking about how we stop at accidents on highways and help out if we can. Volunteering in any number of capacities seems to be a big passtime for nurses who have "finished" their careers. Personally, I have started becoming more politically active and I work on MRSA prevention legislation, and healthcare reform. It is an exciting time for healthcare and rather than whine about the results of our new laws, I figured I ought to pitch in. The options for "retired" nurses are limitless. We may not have specified hours or the big paychecks, but we can still contribute a great deal to healthcare consumers and to our own families, communities and States.

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I certainly hope the hospital is screening for MRSA for the purpose of prevention rather than escaping blame. If patients are screened on hospital admission they can be isolated or cohorted and contact precautions used. They can also use the results in order to treat the colonization preoperatively and to prescribe the appropriate preoperative antibiotic for colonized patients. So that simple screening is cheap but is a very valuable tool for the prevention of new infections and colonizations. I would be absolutely thrilled to hear that my local hospital was screening all new admissions. It would mean they are finally taking MRSA seriously. I think unless a new LTC patient is known MRSA positive, all new residents coming in should be screened too...for the benefit of the patient and everyone surrounding them.

Your question is exactly the problem. Until ALL hospitals adapt a single effective and standard approact to MRSa prevention, MRSA will prevail. My belief is that ADI is the method that will drastically reduce MRSA. That along with decolonization and mandatory reporting of all MRSA for ALL states are the three most important standardized things that hospitals in the US can do to stop MRSA. MRSA precaution recommendations are all over the place. Nobody knows exactly what they are supposed to do. Just watch the VA hospitals in our country. All of their staff knows what to do becasue they have adapted ADI, and decolonizatoin and their rates have dropped over 70% nationwide.

Have your residents been screened or was the one patient diagnosed in a hospital?

Could any of you who work in LTC facilities tell me what perecentage of your residents have either MRSA infection or colonization. I am working with a prevalence test in Maine and trying to find numbers for comparison. Thanks in advance.

A 20 something male who arrested after seizures, a very long code with no response, then a heroic effort of opening the chest, in the ER, and doing manual massage of the heart. My opinion was that it was over about 15 min before opening the chest. A doctor at the nurses station stated.."they started that young man's autopsy in that room", and I agreed.

If you are talking about alcohol breatholizer testing, yes, I have done it as a nurse. It is a simple certification process and simple testing. I did it as an employee health nurse and we did random drug and alcohol testing for DOT requirements where I worked. If you are talking about pulmonary function testing, that is another thing altogether. I have also done that as an industrial nurse.