FlyingJoey

Thanks for the great article. Someone mentioned about pressing charges and I was wondering if it's okay to call local police to a hospital unit to get a police report? Or is there any better way to handle this type of situation when I want to pursue legal action?

I take claritin everyday and zyrtec/benadryl as needed. I get knocked out by zyrtec or benadryl so I can't take them when I work. It seems like Flonase stopped working for me so I'm going to wait for a couple months before using it again. Maybe I should ask my PCP for allergy shots. Anyway, yes that's how I understood CDC guidelines but I guess our infection control nurse did not. She wrote to my manager already and my manager kind of laughed about it saying it's interesting that wearing a mask is mandatory during flu season and it suddenly becomes no-no when flu season is over. I was wondering if the infection control nurse knows something that I don't. Thank you very much for your thorough answers!

Is your hospital willing to pay overtime to everyone everyday? If you follow the requirements, your shift report will take like an hour everyday. DO NOT clock out before you're done with your shift report and see what happens.

Exactly. Infection control nurse said, "you can wear a mask only during flu season if you're not vaccinated but you cannot wear it when flu season is over." I just don't get it...

I live in Southern California so I can safely say that I live with allergies 7/24/365. And it gets worse when the weather gets drier. Anyway, so I have chronic dry cough from nasal drip due to allergies. I was discharging my patient one day and I decided to wear a mask while taking him to his car on a wheelchair because I did not want to sneeze or cough on top of his head. And our infection control nurse came and started talking about infection control and not wearing PPEs outside patient's room, etc. And her lecture ended with "Don't wear a mask. Cough into your sleeve instead. Or you should have called in sick". So.. should I call in sick everytime I get allergy attacks? I wore a mask to protect my patient from me and no one likes to see a nurse coughing in front of them. I did explain to my patient that I did not have cold/flu/any other infectious condition but allergies before putting on a mask. I understand that it's a CDC guideline but I just couldn't find a logic behind 'do not wear a mask outside patient's room' policy to prevent infection. Can someone help me understand?

I was wondering about the same thing as I was reading OP's post and I've got my answer thanks to you :) Have you tried to write them up? Even if your unit manager is close to them, if there are plenty of compalins against them, I assume someone above your unit manager would want to learn more about the situation? How about other nurses? If a good number of nurses suffer from those HUCs, you guys can bring up the issue during staff meetings?