Q&A: Health Care workers please respond, infection control question…?
Question by E A: Health Care workers please respond, infection control question…?
I work doing a busy ER doing Intake and in room registrations in a childrens hospital. We are required to put on their wrist band at the intake desk. We also go into the rooms with a rolling computer to do registrations. Rooms are tiny and we are within 3-6 feet of the patient at all times.
This past March, my Manager made a comment to me when he saw me wear a mask at the Intake Desk. Keep in mind, we are about 1 1/2 ft away from the patients, coughing, sneezing, whatevber.
He told me the ‘best way’ to not get sick was just to wash my hands. I told him that you also get sick from respitory droplets too and I know that is how I had contracted a wicked case of bronchitis I had just got over.
So….now that all the new h1n1 swine flu precautions are in place, infection control, Respitory and Clinical Managers are all over the WEAR YOUR PPE (mask and goggles) as respitory droplets can get into your mucus membrane areas (eyes, nose, )
So, I see a coworker wearing a new pair of fog free goggles and ask him where he got them. Turns out, they were ordered for all the CLINICAL staff but none for the CLERICAL staff (even though we have direct patient contact).
I sent my supervisor an email asking for some and cc’d my manager. The reason I asked is that in patients rooms doing registration, the regular goggles fog up and you have to end up taking them off b/c I can’t see the computer screen.
I get an email from my manager asking me ‘where I am getting my recommendation’ to wear goggles, that all the info he has does not indicate we should.
I went through my e mail and found the first 2 emails regarding this subject of PPE and both people stated ANYONE entering a patient room should wear the PPE and the other one stated that greeter desk personnel should be protecting mouth and eyes.
Here is my e mail to him (names blocked out…)
I am replying to your e mail (see below) where you told me ER Staff were
not required or recommended to wear PPE safety goggles.
I also thought that this is why Management provided the staff
duckbillmasks and goggles for the Intake desk. The reason I asked for
‘fog free’ goggles like the clinical staff now have, is that when doing
registrations in a patients room that we have to take precautions, the
glasses fog up and I eventually have to remove them because I cannot see
the computer screen in order to finish their registration.
Here are two of the e mails I’ve seen that indicate this(I’ve attached
them below):
“if you are ever in a patients room, or might come into contact with a
patients secretions, you need to wear PPE (mask and goggles).” (manager of respitory)
Be sure the triage nurse and greeters are protecting eyes and breathing!
(Nursing clinical director)
ER staff are the 1st point of contact with all patients at the intake
desk and are within 3 feet of the patient the entire time we are
Intaking them and also by putting on their wrist band we are literally
within inches of their face. ER staff also do ‘in room’ registrations
which put us in a patients room for a much greater length of time and we
are in extrememly close proximity to the patients as most of our rooms
at xxxxxxxx are very small. We are always within 3-6 feet of the
patients.
There have also been instances where ER staff has completed a
registration and found out later the patient had something contagious
(strep, bronchiolotis, menengitis).
I do not wear goggles in every room that I register, however, when
someone has presented with chief complaints of fever, cough, body ache,
V&D, ect, and/or I feel that the patient is most likely contagious, I
always wear a mask, if they are actively coughing, I wear goggles.
I have a daughter with a complex medical condition called Subglottic
Stenosis which is a narrowing of her airway in addition to having
asthma. A simple cold with a runny nose on Wednesdsay turned into
Acute Asthma with Viral Pneumonia and required 2 ER visits this weekend.
Dr. xxxxxxx told me last night if she was still having trouble
breathing she would need to be admitted. Last school year, she
had croup 4x and pneumonia which all required ER visits as well.
If I have misunderstood xxxxx or xxxxxx’s e mail, please let me know.
However, I cannot afford to compromise my daughters health by me not
wearing PPE when I feel I need to.
Ok everyone, tell me what you think. I cc’d both of the people that gave their PPE guidelines. I’m thinking about sending to my managers boss (in case their is job retribution) and infection control.
Oh my gosh, as the Manager of over 100 clerical staff, he doesn’t know of the Clinical Nursing and Respitory and Infection control telling EVERYONE that comes into a patients room to wear PPE if they present with respitory, flu, ect type symptoms???
Best answer:
Answer by Superwoman
I don’t personally have the patience to read your whole entire question… However, if you feel strongly about protecting yourself ~~when you are actually performing care, and assessing your patients, then NO ONE should stop you from using Universal Precautions. If they do, manager or NOT they should be spoken to…. First by YOU, and then if they wish to hold their stance,…then you know the string of command,…use it. If you believe there is a chance that you have contracted something at work after using proper I.D. recommended precautions, then you should know it’s your responsibility to go directly to Occupational health/ E.D. for employees and report it. Working in Healthcare has it’s risks and benefits. If it doesn’t suit your personal situation and you feel just too unsafe, then perhaps you might be better suited in another area of healthcare or doing something entirely different altogether.
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