Scabbies

[Zhanna D'ark]

As a nurse assistant, do I have the right to refuse care to a patient assumed to have scabbies in a rehabilitation center for elderly people?

[SolaireSolstice, BSN, RN]

...then she won't have tiny livestock.

This made me spit coffee...

[cherrybreeze, ADN, RN]

i totally agree with this.

i have cared for people with scabies, lice, crabs, and a time or two, despite all precautions and good intentions, have gone home with tiny livestock. was treated and they met an untimely end.

i think if i were given the choice between caring for someone with a bad cold or pneumonia or scabies, i'd take the scabies, hands down, because that malady wouldn't make me barf, cough, sneeze etc. and is easily treated.

please keep in mind that your patient isn't any happier to have scabies (or whatever) than you would be if you were the patient. compassion is always always a primary part of our job.

kathy

shar pei mom:paw::paw:

years ago, when i worked in ltc, we had a big scabies outbreak....many residents and staff got it, before we knew it was there (never were sure of the source, since so many people ended up with it!). i got it, so therefore my fiance at the time got it, too. we all got the lotion stuff to treat it, did the laundry-in-hot-water thing, and then treated all the residents (that was a project!). at any rate, once everyone was treated, no more issues. it happens, just like head lice can run wild-fire through an elementary school. imagine how that person felt, that had it, that then spread it to everyone else (if they knew they had it). i remember when i worked there, every year an upper respiratory infection and a stomach virus would make it's way through the facility, affecting both residents and staff. it's one of those things that happens when you have a lot of people in contact with each other, day in and day out, and a lot of those people are elderly, have chronic conditions, and immune systems that aren't up to the same par they used to be.