Posted: 5/19/2013 1:59:31 PM EDT
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What keeps you people from catching every nasty virus/ bacteria that comes through the door? 
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When you first work in an ER you get sick all the time. Once you have spent some time working there, not only do you get used to the weird and wacky ways people can hurt themselves but you also get your immune system working in overdrive. As you get exposed to more and more your immune system becomes more and more efficent and capable. Unfortunatly it's your mind that takes the brunt of the illness, you become more and more accostomed to broken, bleeding, mangled, and fucked up people, so inured you become that you just stop giving a shit all together.
*Not an ER worker... F that shit |
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My freaking God-like immune system that I have created over the years of riding the ambulance. Frankly, I'd rather not know what all crap I've come in contact with. I have multiple co-workers that test positive on TB tests (they don't have an active case, though). |
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Been an ER nurse going on 10 years and honestly, I never get sick. Not more than an average person, anyhow. Maybe one or two colds a year MAX. Rarely a stomach bug. I wash my hands and use sanitizer and GLOVES. Disease really doesn't transmit as easily as TV would make it seem. We wipe down surfaces between patients. Heck, the bathrooms in my ER are way cleaner than mine is at home because they get cleaned like 3 times a day each, minimum. Each shift, a housekeeper cleans their areas bathrooms, sanitized top to bottom.
I think the constant exposure to microbes makes us more immune than you 'normal' folks. |
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Schools are pretty bad too. When my fiancee taught special-ed middle schoolers in the inner-city, holy crap talk about diseases. I always had a cough, congestion, ache or whatever, until mid-June and then it'd stop until August rolled around. Now she teaches high school in a nice area where parents do not see school as the baby sitter so they stay home when they're sick, plus the different age means she brings a lot less home. Kharn |
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You do your best to keep clean, and trust your immune system for the rest. ETA not an ER worker, but I come in contact with some badness. Right now I'm coming off a month-long bout of pharyngitis - antibiotics knocked it down for a couple of days, it got back up, and I only finished it off a couple of days ago with my immune system and ibuprofen. |
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gloves, masks, hand sanitizers, autoclaves..... but you're right, hospitals are a great place to get sick. Nosocomial infections are nasty- especially Pseudomonas Ain't that the truth, colds and flu spread around my hospital like wildfire, and frequently. I got a nasty case of pneumonia last summer, it took 5 weeks to shake it and involved 5 rounds of augmentin and other antibiotics. I've been sick quite a few times in the 6 years I've been there, despite my OCD-level of PPE and constant sanitizing. I am a total germophobe and the hospital environment can be very nerve-racking to say the least. I can make as much or more money elsewhere, and in all honesty if it weren't for the personal reward of helping people, I'd probably find another job. |
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Quoted: Quoted: Are showers available for staff at hospitals?I would take one after everyshift. Yes they are. while i dont work in an ER/ED i am in the emergency services.. i leave my station uniform at work and wash it and dry it at work, and take showers after my trick.. i refuse to bring that nasty shit home to my family.. you would puke in your mouth if you seen some of the nasty homes i go into..
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When you first work in an ER you get sick all the time. Once you have spent some time working there, not only do you get used to the weird and wacky ways people can hurt themselves but you also get your immune system working in overdrive. As you get exposed to more and more your immune system becomes more and more efficent and capable. Unfortunatly it's your mind that takes the brunt of the illness, you become more and more accostomed to broken, bleeding, mangled, and fucked up people, so inured you become that you just stop giving a shit all together. *Not an ER worker... F that shit This is true. I got sick in the medical ER immediately ( URI) and once over that they told me I might as well go to the Pediatric ER asthma room and get that URI over with while I was still in orientation and not counted. Sure as hell. Sick immediately. After that, never an issue. |
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One more step: Don't touch your face. One of the four rules of BBP. 1: Wash your hands before and after. 2: Keep your fingers out of your face. 3: If it's wet, it's infectious. 4: If it ain't yours, don't touch it with bare skin. 20 years EMS here. https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRUxRaEbfapGNeUGe-Ww-PyEOMvLmtcIAyDUviLIbjzrsLm6VSqxg Of course, context matters. |
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Don't let anyone fool you. Just about all the "universal precautions" are a fucking absolute joke.
We don't put pneumonia/bronchitis/flu patients in negative pressure rooms, so that's about 100-150' and up to ~3 hours worth of exposure time. We don't make family gown and glove, so now you have whatever the patient has all over the place. Those two point just about make any sort of non-direct vector prevention a laugh. About the only thing saving you is gloves, and that only helps from direct contact with the nasties. |
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Don't let anyone fool you. Just about all the "universal precautions" are a fucking absolute joke. We don't put pneumonia/bronchitis/flu patients in negative pressure rooms, so that's about 100-150' and up to ~3 hours worth of exposure time. We don't make family gown and glove, so now you have whatever the patient has all over the place. Those two point just about make any sort of non-direct vector prevention a laugh. About the only thing saving you is gloves, and that only helps from direct contact with the nasties. And that is why you wash your hands before and after ALL contact in a pt room, and keep your fingers out of your face. |
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I swear our nurses are all set for some nasty bug.
I work in supplies, semi sterile environment, and we take that stuff pretty serious, I have human tissue and other things for surgery that just need to be kept clean, so I'm kinda a freak about it at work, not germaphobe or anything its a professional thing. That said I have no idea how many times a nurse just barehanded tried to give me a bloody laryngoscope like there was nothing odd about it. Or, watched them brush bloody anything out of the way when I go up after a trauma, or during a trauma with supplies is astounding. |