printsess

Your scrubs should not leave your place of work. They can be contaminated and you don't know. If they are, and you wear a sweater or coat, or a seat belt, that too becomes contaminated. MRSA can live on fabric for up tp 90 days. The seat belt or sweater contaminates other clothing, and the cycle continues. In an isolation room, the stethescope should not leave the room or should be properly decontaminated before being removed from the room. There should be a well defined policy that everyone is versed on. Peers should assist each other in learning it and in its compliance. If compliance with other staff is an issue, there should be a reporting system that is available to the employee. A collaborative effort will control the spread of infection, and should be precieved as a positive attitude.

A comment on gloves & charting. When we have an isolated patient, we do not take the chart in the room. All charting that must be done in the room, is done with a pen that does not leave the room. The only papers that go in the room are ones the patient must sign. The rest of the charting is done without patient contact. Since we are doing our medications on the computer now, I take one of the portables (on wheels) to the door, and use the counter space to chart so that I am distanced from the patient when charting, but still able to speak to the patient. I am in contact with the patient when appropriate, but cannot chart until after I take my gloves off and wash my hands. Every facility needs to work out an isolation protocol that really works. Then all staff need to use the same rules all the time for it to work. With this problem, there is room for creativity to solve the crisis, but not room for individuality in carrying the duties we have.

Washington State now has legislation that requires all patients with any history of MRSA (or any resistant bacteria) whether active or not, to be isolated for life now. It is a costly move, but it is a move that protects other patients. All patients must be asked if they have ever had the infection. There are certain patients that are screened for the infection (high risk groups have been identified). I think it takes aggressive action like this to slow the spread. In the past MRSA was not taken seriously. Now that it is epidemic, I appreciate our legislative response. Kudos to anyone stopping the spread and protecting patients from getting it. Lives and health are precious. Healthcare workworkers have an obligation to protect them. Thanks for spreading the word & stopping the disease.

That's great. In Washington State and a few other states, the cuts are huge.

Scrubs belong at work only. Whether or not someone knows who I am, I don't want to be a party to spreading disease. I am willing to say something to a business that has people with scrubs shopping. I am not willing to be next in line for picking up what they dropped off and I will say so.

Both of these articles report MRSA, VRE and C-Difficile surviving on scrubs for longer than you think. http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=86187 Journal of Microbiology http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123137245971962641.html Wall Street Journal

I am not a public health nurse, but writing in support of them. The funding is being cut for them disproportionately to other positions. One group with many layoffs has a manager that received a 5% raise at the same time. We need them and they need to be valued.

Kudos for going after the legislation. It's disappointing that appropriate healh information is not shared not only on behalf of the staff caring for the patient, but for the sake of the patient. Withholding the information deprives the patient of appropriate care. This should be dealt with as well. onsuming the cThe facility should be supporting you on that pursuit since they will be costs. I am in Washington State, and dealing witht he same issue. Thanks for sharing.

The economy has caused the layoff of nurses so we do not have enough to handle this. There are more layoffs pending. There needs to be more consideration for how to handle public health nursing and the budget.

The first mistake is leaving work in contaminated scrubs. Whether you covered your scrubs with a sweater or coat, or you just buckled up, that sweater or coat or seatbelt is contaminated. The next time you buckle up or cover up, your street clothes will be contaminated, and the cycle can continue for up to 90 DAYS. That's not worth it to me. I will change at work, and go home without the extra risk to me and my family. Nurses are college educated, we can figure this out without muddling in the community acquired issues.