Should hospitals inform patients and family that COVID positives nurses and staff may be working on a unit?

[DesiDani]

Not tell them that a specific employee is working, but that they may be come into contact with an employee who is positive for COVID.

[Daisy4RN]

50 minutes ago, toomuchbaloney said:

CDC recommends 10 days too.

Only for “severe” illness. So it is certainly within the realm of possibility for a HCW to go to work and still be contagious, esp when we all know how nurses are treated when they call in sick.

[toomuchbaloney]

2 hours ago, Daisy4RN said:

Only for “severe” illness. So it is certainly within the realm of possibility for a HCW to go to work and still be contagious, esp when we all know how nurses are treated when they call in sick.

Are you trying to mischaracterize the intentions of the CDC? Did you look at the chart that was published earlier?

[hppygr8ful, ASN, RN, EMT-I]

As we enter year three of this pandemic think it's reasonable to assume that we as well as members of the general public are all exposed to people with Covid on a daily basis. Like we used to say about HIV assume everyone is infected and protect yourself.

Hppy

[Daisy4RN]

11 hours ago, toomuchbaloney said:

Are you trying to mischaracterize the intentions of the CDC? Did you look at the chart that was published earlier?

No. Yes.

from the CDC:

If position test:

“Stay home for at least 5 days
Stay home for 5 days and isolate from others in your home.

Wear a well-fitted mask if you must be around others in your home.

Ending isolation if you had symptoms
End isolation after 5 full days if you are fever-free for 24 hours (without the use of fever-reducing medication) and your symptoms are improving.

Ending isolation if you did NOT have symptoms
End isolation after at least 5 full days after your positive test.

If you were severely ill with COVID-19
You should isolate for at least 10 days. Consult your doctor before ending isolation”

[toomuchbaloney]

7 minutes ago, Daisy4RN said:

No. Yes.

from the CDC:

If position test:

“Stay home for at least 5 days
Stay home for 5 days and isolate from others in your home.

Wear a well-fitted mask if you must be around others in your home.

Ending isolation if you had symptoms
End isolation after 5 full days if you are fever-free for 24 hours (without the use of fever-reducing medication) and your symptoms are improving.

Ending isolation if you did NOT have symptoms
End isolation after at least 5 full days after your positive test.

If you were severely ill with COVID-19
You should isolate for at least 10 days. Consult your doctor before ending isolation”

It is not the intention of the CDC to encourage contagious individuals back into the workplace.  

[RuralMOSchoolRN, ADN, RN]

2 hours ago, toomuchbaloney said:

It is not the intention of the CDC to encourage contagious individuals back into the workplace.  

I know you disagree with me but you don't speak for the CDC either.  When reading the chart--it says that Positive HCW (vaccinated, boosted, OR unvaccinated) can go to work without any restrictions if hospital is designated in "crisis" mode.  Those people are most certainly contagious at that point.  The CDC may PREFER that people quarantine for 10 days but they are very much giving hospitals an out to keep positive staff at work.

2 minutes ago, RuralMOSchoolRN said:

I know you disagree with me but you don't speak for the CDC either.  When reading the chart--it says that Positive HCW (vaccinated, boosted, OR unvaccinated) can go to work without any restrictions if hospital is designated in "crisis" mode.  Those people are most certainly contagious at that point.  The CDC may PREFER that people quarantine for 10 days but they are very much giving hospitals an out to keep positive staff at work.

Indeed. It is not the intention of the CDC for contagious people to be present in the workplace. That is the intention of some businesses and individuals. The CDC is not a regulatory agency and too many businesses and the too many members of the general public have been ignoring the recommendations of the agency for more than a year. 

[hppygr8ful, ASN, RN, EMT-I]

As we enter year three of this pandemic think it's reasonable to assume that we as well as members of the general public are exposed to people with Covid on a daily basis. Like we used to say about HIV assume everyone is infected and protect yourself.

Hppy

[hppygr8ful, ASN, RN, EMT-I]

On 1/19/2022 at 8:21 AM, toomuchbaloney said:

It is not the intention of the CDC to encourage contagious individuals back into the workplace.  

While I don't think it is the CDC's intention to encourage contagious people back to work these new "Recommendations" are a clear capitulation to lobbyists for corporate medicine to keep hospitals staffed and profits rolling in. My facility tried to have me come back in five days based on these recommendations and my personal physician pushed back and would not budge from 10 days due to my comorbid conditions. His argument was that while I may not be contagious after five days I was still at high risk for significant complications r/t my infection.

Hppy

[Guest219794]

On 1/18/2022 at 6:11 PM, nursej22 said:

Should the hospital inform patients and family that MRSA positive staff may be on the unit? Should we tell them that many of the surfaces in a hospital likely have pathogens? Should we tell them when they sit on the floor that people are often incontinent on the floor? 

Question 1- Sure.  Why not?  Even if they do a simple Google search, or "do their own research", as it is called now, they could figure that out in seconds.

Question 2- Yes.  No question.

Question 3- Absolutely.  Though between patients, ideally they are disinfected.  But, generally, I throw a towel on the floor, kind of wipe it with my foot on the towel, then chuck the towel.

20 minutes ago, hppygr8ful said:

While I don't think it is the CDC's intention to encourage contagious people back to work these new "Recommendations" are a clear capitulation to lobbyists for corporate medicine to keep hospitals staffed and profits rolling in. My facility tried to have me come back in five days based on these recommendations and my personal physician pushed back and would not budge from 10 days due to my comorbid conditions. His argument was that while I may not be contagious after five days I was still at high risk for significant complications r/t my infection.

Hppy

Indeed.  Hence my push back on the notion that it is the CDCs intention to hurry health workers back into the workplace.  It's clearly not.  The CDC does respond to the political and social pressure to act like the pandemic is over and mitigation should be optional.  We've seen them bend under unprecedented political pressure since 2020.

[londonflo]

On 1/18/2022 at 7:46 PM, Daisy4RN said:

Only for “severe” illness.

One person's mild illness is severe in another.

23 hours ago, RuralMOSchoolRN said:

When reading the chart--it says that Positive HCW (vaccinated, boosted, OR unvaccinatED) can go to work without any restrictions if hospital is designated in "crisis" mode.  

The world has gone crazy... I break my hip and am treated by a hospital staff person who has Covid? And then I go home incubating Covid which shows itself days later?

17 minutes ago, toomuchbaloney said:

The CDC does respond to the political and social pressure to act like the pandemic is over and mitigation should be optional.  We've seen them bend under unprecedented political pressure since 2020.

I think we can all agree the agency needs to be abolished with a better form of agency started from the ground up. I have lost all the respect I developed with the CDC during the AIDS crisis. (It is well known that the CDC was going to be eliminated but then the AIDS crisis happened. The agency rose to the challenge....they are not rising to any challenge now, except to 'release' dangerous recommendations that make this whole country at risk.