Worried and Paranoid

[NightChild27]

Hello everyone. I'm new and in need of some advice. (Hopefully this is placed in the right forum)

Recently at work(I'm a CNA, in case that is important) we have a scabies outbreak. I work on a nursing home floor where about 20 out of 60 residents have this. I was not informed of this until last night and was told this has been going on for about a month now! This means out of my 30 residents about 10 have it. I have been having skin contact with them. This worries me. I am constantly checking my body(and my son) for any signs of scabies and thankfully so far I've gotten nothing.

What are the chances of staff catching this?

How come I was not informed until recently? Many CNAs were kept in the dark about this.

Shouldn't there be PPEs outside the doors of infected rooms?

[juzme]

hi, 1st of all...always follow standard precautions with whomever you are caring for, because and I'm sure you know that we may never know what someone has. But when a resident, client. etc. is found out to have something communicable appropriate isolation guidelines are put in place; i.e. for scabies, this is a contact precautions issue. If the resident, client has active TB then airborne precautions are used. Scabies is highly contagious through skin to skin contact and no sharing of any personal items should be done at all if you even suspect you have been exposed. The best thing is to make an appt with your MD. I am not sure why your facility did not make others aware, maybe ask the DON. Best of luck to you!

[caliotter3]

I found that the employer seems to forget about making announcements of this nature. That is why you should always be very careful about using standard precautions on the job.

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

and don't forget: if you do get scabies, it will be a worker's compensation case and that will cost your employer money-- to treat you and to pay you while you're off work. you might want to mention that to employee health.

[sharpeimom]

another thought...

i worked psych and "got" scabies once and belive me you'll know if you have them because they

itch like crazy and where the mite is is sore.

my husband didn't get them, but being a slightly overprotective cat and dog mama, i checked in

with our vet. he said to only handle them while wearing gloves, and to watch for itching and to check

them for bumps that aren't usually there. he said although the chances of their catching them from me was

slight, it was still a very real risk. they use a squeeze-on liquid that protects against heartworm,

whipworm, fleas, ticks, mosquitos, etc. and scabies too, maybe.

[RNewbie]

It's sad, but things like this happen all the time. Think about all the things that healthcare workers are exposed to that we probably never know about. I took care of a pt about 2 weeks ago with scabies that I didn't know about until shift change at the end of the shift. Pt had red rash on thighs. Dr ordered calamine lotion and benadryl on previous shift. I was looking in drs progress notes to see what the plan was for the pt. I saw some scribble that said scabies protocol and consult pharm for med treatment. I love how drs write things in their notes but don't write orders or notify the nurse. Even with standard precautions I was paranoid for days after that.

[hiddencatRN, BSN, RN]

Standard precautions isn't enough to protect against scabies-you need contact precautions for that.

OP, that's really crappy of your employer not to have made that information known to the staff. Maybe you can bring up ways to make sure this info gets communicated properly.

[Elladora]

We had scabies where I work last fall. It's treatable but a pain in the behind. I think we had something like 14 clients and 3 staff members that got it so to answer the "What are the chances of staff getting this?" I would say pretty good if you aren't using contact precautions.

It's pretty crappy of your employer not to inform you. We were lucky, we were told as soon as we knew it was a problem. Clients were isolated while being treated and staff was provided with appropriate PPE.

Good luck to you!