Why didn't I know this?

[jmejo]

So, I've been a nurse a little over a year now. I work in LTC. I've had patients with MRSA but I've never been the nurse to recieve the labs stating this patient has MRSA. Well I recieved that fax the other night during night shift. I feel like a real dummy because I didn't do anything about it. I faxed the results with the patients allergies to the Dr. like we do all our other labs. It didn't even occur to me that it was saturday and the dr wouldn't see it until monday. When the day nurse came in we were at the nurses station with other residents around so i pushed the lab to the other nurse and said this came in last night, assuming she looked at it and seen what it said. Well, I should already know NOT to assume anything. The day nurse didn't read it and this resident with MRSA was all over the nursing home like normal. I, for some reason, had NO idea we were supposed to put them on precautions ASAP. After word got around that this res had MRSA I went to my DON and told them what had happend. They explained the "procedure" to follow when a res has MRSA. I just wish I would have known this sooner. I keep asking myself, why didn't I know to do this? I feel as if I am a pretty strong nurse and now I question this. Was it just my duh moment or what? I have now researched MRSA online and found some very helpful information about it. Sometimes I wish there was a rewind button!

[GeauxNursing]

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OOOOHH :) We have always used ATBX's, I couldn' t figure it out from ABT

i just use "abx" lol. tomato, tomahto.

[Commanderzoom]

I'm scratching my head over here wondering how you could have possibly not known to put the PT on isolation precautions immediately. I'm not even a nurse yet and I know to do that.

Oh well, live and learn. It sounds like you learned from your mistake and won't be making it again.

[NurseCubanitaRN2b, BSN, RN]

In our hospital all MRSA (past and present) have to be isolated no matter what. I wouldn't beat yourself up over it. Hey, you're human, and we all have made some sort of boo boo in our career in health care. Even things that are common sense we've made boo boos on. I've done it! Yes, you feel like a dum dum, but hey that's life. We make mistakes, and we learn from them.