"Well it doesn't matter, they're already on abx anyway"

[sapphire18]

I was reading another thread where a nurse was less-than-worried about preventing infection in a wound because the patient was already on antibiotics. The OP rightly corrected this line of thinking in her post by saying that not every bacteria responds to every different antibiotic.

...Right?!?

In reading this, I was reminded of a similar situation that I observed at my job a couple of months ago. A patient was not putting out any urine, when he had previously been putting out an adequate amount. It was a sudden change. The RN for the patient tried flushing the foley/irrigating, advancing the catheter, changing the patient's position, changing the level of the foley bag, nothing was working. She proceeds to deflate the balloon and pull the catheter a couple of centimenters out, then advance it again. No go. This continues on until the catheter is COMPLETELY OUT of the patient, and she proceeds to reinsert the same catheter, with the same clean (not sterile) gloves that she had been wearing during this entire process. I mentioned something hoping that we didn't give the patient a UTI, and her response was "Oh, he already has one, he's on antibiotics, he'll be fine." Really?!?

I've encountered several other situations like this at my current job, such as nurses not scrubbing the hub before giving IV meds, opening up the closed *sterile* suctioning system we have for our vents, and the list goes on. Certain people seem to be ok with the fact that "well, they're already on antibiotics, they'll be fine." I just don't get this. Maybe someone can offer some insight that I'm missing??

[abiklags]

i've heard this abx thing before-about 2 years before starting nursing school.

my sister was in overnight summer camp and 3 days after she got there had severe headache, stiff neck, and vomiting. camp nurse told doc, doc said its a stomach virus. my dad came to visit her and said there is no way in he** she is staying here over the week end (it was july 4th week end and the hosp near there is bad to begin with). he took her home, pediatrician said go to hosp NOW. anywhos long story short she had viral menegitis AND strep throat. the doctor said the abx for the menengitis is like dropping an atom bomb on an ant so will cover the strep.

really true?

[NurseCard, ADN]

Heck, after I had my son, I started having strong UTI symptoms. First of

all, my doctor didn't believe me when I said I had a UTI ("Well, you just had

a child, you SHOULD be bleeding" "Doc, the blood isn't coming from THERE"),

but then he said "Well, you are already on an antibiotic, it should cover the

UTI if you have one".