This is soooo sad, in more ways than 1. Need advice

Published

I"ve been working for agency this week on a Burn Unit. Last noc I noticed one of the CNA's putting a bandaid on her finger. I asked if she was ok. She said she was, that she just needed a new bandaid. I then asked her what happened to her finger....

She told me that a few days ago she had a Burn Pt in the whirlpool. This was the first WP the Pt had since he came in 3 weeks ago after his Meth lab blew up. She was shaving his face, when the razor cut her finger and made a SMALL laceration, and of course it bled....

I then asked her if she reported it to anyone after it happened, and she told me that she didn't b/c her manager already hates her, and so does the staff, and this would have given them even more of a reason to hate her. :o . She did her homework though! She asked one of the nurses if this guy had HIV or Hepatitis, both negative...so she didn't feel like it was any big deal to report it. She also told me that the razor never came into contact with any of his bodily fluids, but then proceeded to tell me how crusty his face was -dried blood, etc, etc. Apparently his face had 2nd degree, now healed burns, so it was pretty crusty.

This guy was D/C'd before I ever got there, so I don't know anything about him...she refused to even tell me his name.

I'm there for 3 more days, again, I'm agency. I want to report it, but she did tell me confidentially, and again, she is a grown-up....

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in 5 yrs OR, ASU Pre-Op 2 yr. ER.

I'd encourage her, for her own sake, to get checked out. At least go to the health dept. to get tests run.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Join the Discussion