admin note: we just added a poll to this thread today, april 25, 2008, please take a second and vote in the poll so we can have a graphical representation of the responses. thanks
scenario:
h5n1 (the bird flu) mutates to become efficient at transmitting human to human causing a pandemic, with a case fatality rate of 60% and with 80% of the cases in the 0-40 year old age range.
hospitals will be quickly overrun. hospital staff shortages are 50%. the government orders all nurses to work. there is not enough personal protection equipment (n95 masks, gloves, goggles, tamiflu, vax, etc)
home quarantines become common (in the fed plans).
your family is also quarantined in your home. you are running out of food and the government promises you will be "taken care of" if you report to work.
Ayrmans right. PPE is very expensive. If you factor in pandemic waves lasting maybe several months each with two or three waves passing through during a pandemic (and the very real possibility of infection between waves) that's a lot of PPE. Good quality masks - N95 minimum - would be a considerable expense at the rate you'd need to change them, and if you didn't stock up beforehand you'd be paying black market prices at the time - that's if you could find them by then.
If your hospital truly provides masks that are as bad as you say, they are in violation of OSHA rules. You are to fit-tested for the proper fitting mask yearly and that mask must be provided in you work area! If this is not the case go to the hospital safety officer or health service to request fit testing. During a pandemic or not, a sick employee is not an asset.
We'll probably be the ones who are dropping like flies when they realize it is a pandemic. By chance I'm on vacation when it hits I won't work without PPE's. Who will care for the ones who survive if all the medical staff are gone due to putting our lives at risk? I'd have to think really hard about leaving my family. Undecided
i'd work as a chaplain if possible, but I'd work during a pandemic. i cared for hundreds of folks in the early years of HIV, before it was HIV/AIDS, even before GRIC and ARC.
Would I work during a pandemic? Absolutely not! My hospital becomes overwhelmed every winter during the regular flu season. Same old story, not enough beds, not enough resources. I know if I reported to work I would die there along with the rest of the population.
Thanks to the vicerofblue.....[i will not cross a picket line ever.] I doubt under the circumstances that you would have to but I thank you for your willingness to do so. I come from a town with a long history of Labor Unions. We have over a hundred years of efforts to organize the working class and we are very proud of this. We were the steel center of the World at one time. Thank you again for your commemt. It means a lot to Union brothers and sisters
Specializes in LTC, rehab, Adolescent trach/vent,.
If all of our local, state and federal politicians were to volunteer to work in hospitals during a pandemic, without PPE, then I MIGHT consider it. Since that will never happen, I guess I would have to decline the Government ordered opportunity to die.
Aloha551 - I voted no, but I would keep going in as long as I thought it safe (both for me and my family) or until there was no job to go to. The reason I say that is because I think the decision to come in will be taken out of my hands as supply lines begun to be cut by absenteeism. I work in a for profit dialysis clinic and without a lot of things in place (constant supply of power and clean water, medical supplies, chemicals, meds, etc) we'll be unable to function. If we lose either water or electricity, we have no storage tanks or generators with sufficient fuel waiting in the wings to keep us going. If we run out of fistula needles, saline, reuse supplies, etc we're closing the doors. At what point will that happen? I honestly don't know, but if it gets bad I fully expect the trucks to stop rolling up to our back door at some point. I asked the supervisor at my last job what pandemic contingency plans we had, and got a blank stare, so I e-mailed the company directly. The reply came back through her that we would defer to the CDC and local health authority. Or put another way, we had no plan. When I started at my new job I checked their website to see what I could find. The link on the main page takes you to the government's website, so again I assume we have no plan. I'm lucky if I make it between deliveries on the case of gloves they order in my size, so having enough PPE to keep us going in a pandemic situation would be anyones guess. N95's? Never seen them at a dialysis clinic - it's surgical masks and face shields only. Short answer - yes, I'd work until it got too dangerous for my loved ones at home, and then I'd hole up for as long as I could.
Specializes in Psych/Substance Abuse & School Clinics.
I chose nursing as a career in order to provide care to people. Going in without adequate PPE and becoming a casualty myself would not accomplish anything.No PPE? No Workee! If healthcare workers drop-who'll care for them?
I do not and would not trust the current gov't to 'take care of me'. Heck, they couldn't get a quarter million people out of NO after Katrina. People that wanted to be rescued, who were waving flags, banners and such. You think I'd trust them to meet my and my family's needs and those of every other health care worker out there?
"taken care of" with no PPE or meds available? What are they referring to when they say that? Probably a ride to and from and meals on duty, but not much more. Yes, I think I would go in anyway, but I'd be pretty realistic about not expecting any thanks or recognition.
Agree with these. Hard to make that choice when it isn't happening right now. I'd hope I would go in to help others who needed it, as I'd want my own family helped. But until the time came to prove it ???
If healthcare workers drop-who'll care for them? 
Jacksdad
7 Posts
Ayrmans right. PPE is very expensive. If you factor in pandemic waves lasting maybe several months each with two or three waves passing through during a pandemic (and the very real possibility of infection between waves) that's a lot of PPE. Good quality masks - N95 minimum - would be a considerable expense at the rate you'd need to change them, and if you didn't stock up beforehand you'd be paying black market prices at the time - that's if you could find them by then.