*rolling my eyes*

Nurses COVID

Published

Here we go again with the media spouting idiotic information that they have no idea about and that cannot be explained with a few "google searches"

i find I am deeply irritated with the article about the RN who contracted Ebola for reasons of a blatant invasion of her privacy, and also for the following reasons.

1. You do not get Certified in nursing when you graduate from school, you have to take a test and you get licensed.

2. You do not need a CCRN to work in critical care and the absence of one does not mean you are not qualified for your position, or the fact that the Texas RN recently received her certification does not mean she was not qualified to care for a critically ill patient.

3. The sample exam of the CCRN on the website that the reporter gazed at for a couple of seconds in no way reflects a large percentage of the questions in the final exam, thus one can not make the assumption that there is no question on infectious diseases (which by the way is nursing 101 whereas the CCRN focuses on the hemodynamically unstable patient)

4. the constant parading of the pinterest quote leads me to believe that they want to emphasize that she did not trust in the knowledge of some of her physician colleagues (i mean really? we all work with certain doctors that make us question their every order because they just do not seem to get it)

...again, the media has absolutely NO idea what we do as nurses and is so incredibly lazy in its research that it does not even come close to scratching the surface.

Specializes in School Nursing.
Ebola nurse Am​ber Vinson called CDC several times before flying - CBS News

"In the case of Amber Vinson, the Dallas nurse who flew commercially as she was becoming ill with Ebola, one health official said somebody dropped the ball."

"The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that Vinson called the agency several times before flying, saying that she had a fever with a temperature of 99.5 degrees. But because her fever wasn't 100.4 degrees or higher, she didn't officially fall into the group of "high risk" and was allowed to fly."

Okay- I'm sorry, if this is true, I have to ask her where her critical thinking skills were that day. She KNEW she'd been exposed to Ebola. She KNEW elevated temperature was one of the first symptoms. She KNEW one of her colleagues, despite best efforts had contracted it. An elevated temp, even only slight, should have had her arranging for hospital observation.

I wish her only the best, and do not blame her for the circumstances that caused her to contract the virus. I'm just saying, ***** She should have known better!

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Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
Okay- I'm sorry, if this is true, I have to ask her where her critical thinking skills were that day. She KNEW she'd been exposed to Ebola. She KNEW elevated temperature was one of the first symptoms. She KNEW one of her colleagues, despite best efforts had contracted it. An elevated temp, even only slight, should have had her arranging for hospital observation.

I wish her only the best, and do not blame her for the circumstances that caused her to contract the virus. I'm just saying, ***** She should have known better!

You are blaming her. Save your wrath for hospital administration, nursing leaders and the CDC.

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I had this same discussion.. How can staff protect themselves if we do not have the correct PPEs? I had told all of those who were bashing the nurse to wait for the truth to come out. Hospitals keep saying they are ready. They are lying. One of our local hospitals says they are because they have the CDC guidelines posted at every floor. WTH?? Seriously?? If that's how hospitals are "preparing" themselves this is going to get ugly real fast.

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I do blame the second infected nurse for flying on a commercial airline 2 days after the ebola patient she cared for died. That makes no sense. I blame her and I blame the hospital. I blame the hospital for not recognizing the urgency, for not having protocol, and for having 76 health care personnel come in contact with the man who died.

Seventy-six.

And now they are getting on PLANES.

It was reported that she called CDC and told them her temp. They said it was below their threshold and did not tell her not to fly. Then head of CDC puts her on blast on the news blaming her. How bout the CDC knowing what is going on and giving adequate info.

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Okay- I'm sorry, if this is true, I have to ask her where her critical thinking skills were that day. She KNEW she'd been exposed to Ebola. She KNEW elevated temperature was one of the first symptoms. She KNEW one of her colleagues, despite best efforts had contracted it. An elevated temp, even only slight, should have had her arranging for hospital observation.

I wish her only the best, and do not blame her for the circumstances that caused her to contract the virus. I'm just saying, ***** She should have known better!

My temp goes higher than that when I ovulate. Again, she deferred to the so called EXPERTS and was told she was fine. The failure is on whoever told her it was ok on the phone SEVERAL times

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How come everyone who decontaminates the houses of these people, the CDC, and the health care workers in Africa all wear hazmat suits and nurses are given a glorified trash bag to care for these pts in US? Really shows how much they value our safety. More like the value of the bottom line.

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Specializes in RN, CHPN.
How come everyone who decontaminates the houses of these people, the CDC, and the health care workers in Africa all wear hazmat suits and nurses are given a glorified trash bag to care for these pts in US? Really shows how much they value our safety. More like the value of the bottom line.

The people who decontaminate houses wear one suit. Cost is minimal. How many suits would it take to protect nurses from an Ebola patient during his or her hospital stay? And how much would it cost? That's how the bean counters think. Add to that the CDC doesn't even recommend hazmat suits, and the bean counters are within the guidelines (while secretly thinking they would never go near an Ebola patient without one).

I think PPE for Ebola will be determined by who has to pay for the medical care of the two nurses who were infected (instead of what should determine it -- a level 4 pathogen). If the hospital is sued for all they're worth -- and they should be (but Nina Pham is probably too 'nice') -- then we'll get hazmat suits. If health insurance and the gov't pays for their medical care, we won't see them.

It's up to us to protect ourselves. And I don't mean we should buy our own equipment. I mean each of us doing our own research, and deciding what level of risk we're willing to take. And also speaking out. Maybe this is what will finally give us nurses a spine.

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Okay- An elevated temp, even only slight, should have had her arranging for hospital observation.

And if this hospital is anything like one I used to work in (and it kinda sounds similar), if a nurse told a supervisor that she wished to "arrange for hospital observation" for her barely elevated temperature, she would be outright laughed at. And told to forget it. AND told that if she felt she were too ill to work, she should stay home (thereby getting them 'off the hook' for liability in case she were to stay there and get more people infected).

No, it's not the nurse's fault. She followed the directives of the supposed authorities on the subject, and while we can all be armchair quarterbacks (and have 20/20 hindsight), this falls on the CDC ENTIRELY.

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Specializes in Oncology; medical specialty website.
THIS.

I'm going to say it again:

I said this on the other thread about Ebola, so here it goes:

If anything, something had to happen to reveal how poorly hospitals are managed and how they treat nurses; in the midst of all things, how nursing can band together and reveal to the public how corporized (my word) hospitals have been and how they care about the bottom line will be their downfall.

I knew it was going to happen, but I surely didn't suspect that it would come from an infectious disease.

The CDC is not like the Feds or National Guard; they cannot come and commandeer a private company, so no, I don't blame them entirely; however, the hospital said they had it under control, when obviously they didn't, and when corporate is refusing to approve proper PPE or even allow the CDC in, then the ire should be on how MANY hospitals are run.

This is a HUGE opportunity for nurses to step up and speak out in how facilities are run and allow the public to scrutinize how hospitals are run roughshod over how the front lines-especially NURSES are treated and ignored, and not supported...it has been prepared to happen, unfortunately it had to happen this way. :no:

I find it interesting that the National Nurses Union, part of the California Nurses Assn., was out front speaking up about how the nurses are being treated. Meanwhile, the ANA, the self-proclaimed "Voice of Nursing"....

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The people who decontaminate houses wear one suit. Cost is minimal. How many suits would it take to protect nurses from an Ebola patient during his or her hospital stay? And how much would it cost? That's how the bean counters think. Add to that the CDC doesn't even recommend hazmat suits, and the bean counters are within the guidelines (while secretly thinking they would never go near an Ebola patient without one).

I think PPE for Ebola will be determined by who has to pay for the medical care of the two nurses who were infected (instead of what should determine it -- a level 4 pathogen). If the hospital is sued for all they're worth -- and they should be (but Nina Pham is probably too 'nice') -- then we'll get hazmat suits. If health insurance and the gov't pays for their medical care, we won't see them.

It's up to us to protect ourselves. And I don't mean we should buy our own equipment. I mean each of us doing our own research, and deciding what level of risk we're willing to take. And also speaking out. Maybe this is what will finally give us nurses a spine.

Can health insurance companies go after the liable party like car insurance companies can? My bet is that insurance company lawyers would be heavy hitters compared to what a single nurse would have at their disposal, and be closer to parity with what a hospital could field in their defense. Separately, what are unions doing to step in here to protect worker safety?

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Specializes in School Nursing, Hospice,Med-Surg.

Temp or no temp, she shouldn't have been flying after caring for an ebola patient.

I don't place the blame squarely on her but she should NOT have been traveling or exposing herself to any extra people unnecessarily in a 21 day time period after caring for Mr. Duncan. It was selfish and negligent on her part, IMO.

The CDC also acted carelessly in giving her the advice they gave her.

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However this turns out, there will be much scrambling by all involved parties to minimize liability or the appearance thereof. ;)

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