Will you work during a Pandemic?

Nurses COVID

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  1. Nurses, would you go to work during a Pandemic?

    • 1926
      No
    • 5592
      Yes
    • 1288
      undecided

1,893 members have participated

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.

see:

http://www.wpro.who.int/nr/rdonlyres/fd4ac2fd-b7c8-4a13-a32c-6cf328a0c036/0/s4_1113.jpg

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.

will you go?

Specializes in SICU, MICU, CICU, NeuroICU.

I had a lecture in school on disasters. He said, when you see someone hit the floor, you turn and run the other way, and that's exactly what I would do.

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Specializes in PACU.

Have you all been stigmatized for talking about the need for Pandemic planning at your places of work?

My home care agency actually has been quite proactive in sending us information regarding the threat and recommending preparation. I have been pleased with that, though the level of detail is somewhat minimal. Sadly, the vast majority of my coworkers are not concerned at all and are not preparing in any way.

During a pandemic such as that outlined in the original post, I believe that my agency would cease operations after handing off patient care to family members--it would decrease the likelihood of both staff and clients becoming infected. It just would not make sense to subject the patients to a constant stream of potentially infected nurses when they have family that can provide all required care.

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For those thinking that individuals prepare, what the heck can we do? I got my annual flu shot, I already avoid crowds because I live in Chicken Fart, NY, and we have canned goods in.

Seriously. If a plague comes, what the heck can you do to not get it?

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Specializes in Community, OB, Nursery.

Chicken Fart. That's good, Sue! ;)

If it happened tomorrow, Arwen's butt would be firmly planted right inside her home. I'd have no desire to be apart from my family in the midst of such a disaster.

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? :nono:

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Specializes in SICU.
"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. I haven't heard of any of the nurses that stayed during Katrina getting anything special, and I often wonder if they were paid for that last week or so. Anyone know?

I don't know about any of the other New Orleans area hospitals, but I DO know that Tulane (an HCA facility) not only paid its employees for their Katrina time, they also paid every single employee a full paycheck through the end of 2005. I wasn't able to return to work until October 2005 - I never missed a paycheck. HCA was very good to us in that regard.

As to working during a pandemic, I'm still undecided on that one. My primary concern is for my family.

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Specializes in Operating Room.

Nope..If there's enough PPE to go around, maybe. But at the end of the day, my family is the most important to me. As much as I enjoy being a nurse, I'm not ready to martyr myself for my job.

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Specializes in Operating Room.
Yeah I'd work, but then again I don't have children. I can certainly understand parents not coming in so they can take care of their kids, and since i'm the only nurse on my unit without kids I guess I'll be the only one working lol

I don't have children either, but I don't think I should sacrifice myself because I don't happen to have kids at this point. Should this flu thing happen, I'll be in hiding with my family and will be looking out for them.

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Specializes in ED, ICU, PSYCH, PP, CEN.

Unfortunately, by the time authorities realize that we have a pandemic on our hands most of us will have already been exposed to it due to our jobs, esp ER staff. So, if I am still alive I might go in depending on what the situation was. I am no martyre however. The powers that be have known of this threat for a long time and done very little to manage it. I won't die for their sloppiness.

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Specializes in Too many to list.

I hope that that the CDC and HHS are noting the responses in this thread.

The public will assume that nurses are going to be working.

The govt assumes this also.

Homeland Security, are you reading this?

When will you sit down and talk with us? We are not just statistics.

We are real individual people with families that depend on us.

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Specializes in Vents, Telemetry, Home Care, Home infusion.

As part of our homecare agency disaster planing, we are scheduling a drill in December based on flu pandemic. Part of drill is to survey staff to see # staff with family responsibilities preventing them from coming to work..... I expect some interesting response. Billing staff can always be pulled to answer phones in my dept I stated. ;)

Big push for flu vaccine....need to sign form if declining---shows agency offered.

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I hope that that the CDC and HHS are noting the responses in this thread.

The public will assume that nurses are going to be working.

The govt assumes this also.

Homeland Security, are you reading this?

When will you sit down and talk with us? We are not just statistics.

We are real individual people with families that depend on us.

Excellent post. You nailed it.

When we have administrators who consider us little more than chattel, working us under impossible conditions until we're ready to drop... and "customers" who refuse to see us as human beings... how can we expect the government and public to view us any differently?

Well, I regret to inform them that "martyr" is NOT in my job description. They may as well get that romantic image of the long-suffering 'ministering angel' out of their heads, and start making realistic plans for how they will handle this situation. Flo doesn't live here anymore.

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I hope that that the CDC and HHS are noting the responses in this thread.

The public will assume that nurses are going to be working.

The govt assumes this also.

Homeland Security, are you reading this?

When will you sit down and talk with us? We are not just statistics.

We are real individual people with families that depend on us.

IG - sadly i think they are watching and reading but not taking any action beyond the status quo of "the miracle vaccine". In private I bet those same people are prepping like crazy.... but will hang us all out to dry.

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