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.

[macawake, MSN]

4 hours ago, Robmoo said:

Gov Cuomo took it one step further and mandated that nursing homes had to accept COVID19 positive patients.  Nothing like cleaning out the nursing homes for the sake of "the future."  Sweden took a similar approach.  But that is a topic for a different thread.

I’m not familiar with all the details surrounding the actions the New York Governor took, but it doesn’t sound credible that the decisions made were motivated by a desire to ”clean out” nursing homes. What was the situation in New York hospitals at the time? I’m guessing this took place during that first brutal wave early in 2020? 

Also, what you just said regarding Sweden is a gross mischaracterization of the Swedish pandemic strategy. I’m not that surprised because I have read how it’s been described in international media. 
 

4 hours ago, Robmoo said:

We chose a mid-course between those nations who totally locked down and countries such as Sweden who took few precautions. 

I’m Swedish-Norwegian, working and living in Sweden. If you start that other thread, I’ll be happy to answer any questions you might have regarding the Swedish Covid strategy and what it’s been like living here and working as a nurse for these past two years.

[MunoRN, RN]

14 hours ago, Robmoo said:

Gov Cuomo took it one step further and mandated that nursing homes had to accept COVID19 positive patients.  Nothing like cleaning out the nursing homes for the sake of "the future."  Sweden took a similar approach.  But that is a topic for a different thread.

To address the wider scope of you post, it come down to the same old problem of how much freedom are you willing to give up for safety and security.  It isn't in the nature of Americans to give up a large amount of freedom for a small increase in security (safety).  We chose a mid-course between those nations who totally locked down and countries such as Sweden who took few precautions.  Some early predictions placed the number of deaths that our nation would suffer at 2 million.  We have so far been able to keep under half that number.

 

 

I'm not sure why this needs to be pointed out to someone who is supposedly a nurse, but established premises of public health shouldn't be overridden by the irrational, grief-driven rantings of a Fox weatherwoman, any nurse who supports that should be not only un-licensed, but probably jailed.

I'm normally all for any anti-Cuomo rhetoric, but not when it would ultimately lead to deaths of thousands of people.

In the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic, the NY department of health, not actually Cuomo himself, put out a reminder that NY state law, like laws in every other state, prevented nursing homes from refusing a returning resident based on a particular diagnosis.  

This was no different than laws at the time in other states, and is no different than the practice still enforced today.

Most of these patients were already well past their infectious periods (being "covid positive" is not an indicator of infectiousness) and in general these patients were being discharged to facilities where Covid was already present, meaning it was extremely unlikely that these patients were the ones introducing Covid into the facility's environment.

Of course you shouldn't take my word for it, but the conclusions of the only epidemiologists to address the claims should hold some weight.  https://khn.org/news/is-cuomo-directive-to-blame-for-nursing-home-covid-deaths-as-us-official-claims/

By far the biggest challenge I deal with these days in caring for patients is the massive amount of misinformation that has come into play, when that comes from a fellow nurse then it's my professional responsibility to tell you, in no uncertain terms, to *** off.

 

[MT Fun_Dips]

On 1/18/2022 at 6:24 PM, Daisy4RN said:

I believe the PCR test is the one that can give positive results post Covid so people should use the rapid antigen test(which I am sure could also produce a false positive but better results). Also, my County is stating on the website that even though CDC states to isolate for 5 days that 10 is better. 

I'm a bit late to reply but seeing how this is a lab related question, I thought I'd throw my two cents in.

While the ELISA based antigen and PCR based covid test are both very accurate, only the RT-PCR based (and to a lesser extent mPCR) test should be taken as a fact that at the time of the test one has or is carrying covid-19. The antigen test tends to comparatively lack accuracy and sensitivity for detecting viral presence and should not taken with the same level of credibility. The possibility for false readings for antigen tests is far greater than with PCR due to the nature of the test depending on setric ligand interactions, meaning the possibility for no interactions or imposter interactions is not inconsiderable.

With RT-PCR tests and even rapid, mPCR tests, this dilemma of result accuracy is negligible in comparison. The main difference between the two PCR tests is test time and sensitivity, with RT-PCR taking 4 times as long but at being around 10 times as sensitive as mPCR (with RT-PCR being able to detect a single molecule of RNA in a microliter of solution). The only real concern with PCR is whether the sample was contaminated, as the sample can be contaminated just by breathing on/close to it.

[hppygr8ful, ASN, RN, EMT-I]

On 1/18/2022 at 3:11 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? 

We haven't had family visits inside the hospital in almost two years. We are acute inpatient psych and when it is safe to do so we walk the patient off the unit to the perimeter fence and they get a 10 minute visit through the fence. I do reminder my patients who like to sit on the floor that it's the dirtiest place in the hospital.

Hppy