Who To Blame When You Get Ebola: A CDC Guide For Healthcare Workers

[riverwalker]

(by a funny Doc)

http://thehappyhospitalist.blogspot.com/2014/10/Ebola-CDC-Flowchart-Blames-Nurses.html

Nurses are used to getting blamed for everything. In fact, most nursing programs teach nurses how to take one for the team when bad things happen. Getting blamed for spreading Ebola is naturally accepted by most nurses as business as usual.
"After speaking with representatives from the American Nurses Association, everyone agreed blaming nurses for spreading Ebola was just the easiest thing to do," said Jason Fenster, a CDC spokesman who blamed his nurse last year for undercooked eggs while hospitalized for an undisclosed infection contracted at a CDC laboratory.
"I've been in the hospital CEO business for 30 years. Whenever bad things happen in a hospital setting, we can count on at least one nurse to take the fall. In fact, I'm so confident that a nurse is always at fault, we built an entire section into our hospital rules and regulations titled 'How To Blame a Nurse For Anything Bad That Could Lead To A Lawsuit," said Jed Brainer, CEO of Texas Presbyterian Hospital.

[uppityperson]

1. We all make mistakes, hospitals are understaffed, nurses overworked. Easiest person to blame

for everything, including the facility not making enough money? Nurses! I had 1 hospital, after staffing cuts and increasing workloads, hire a consultant for $100,000 to improve how nurses were feeling about it all. His solution was not make a decent workload but buy us tacky cups that said "we appreciate our nurses" on them, And they wondered why we unionized.

[riverwalker]

2. lol

they think we are idiots. If not for the union having our backs on this, we would have to care for Ebola patients with a reusable paper bag over our heads with two eyeholes cut out.

[magical thyme]

3. I saw an article yesterday at work on why mistakes are made with PPEs

the nonhealthcare worker looked through the training materials and ended up . Guidelines, alternate guidelines, notes to each of the steps in the guidelines, 60 pages of slides, entire manuals.

All for review, and no practice as part of training.

[kestrel91316]

5. Texas probably feels training is too onerous so they don't require it. Can't cut into the

profits, now, can we?

We're told the current CDC guidelines are inadequate, so expect lots more reading for people with the new set. Which they won't bother to do.

Look at this - WAY too complex for anyone but a rocket scientist: http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/pdf/ppe-poster.pdf

[Ms. Toad]

14. I'm appalled at that poster.

Steps 2 & 3 of the first set of removal directions use clean hands to touch dirty PPE (the goggle straps & the gown ties). Even pretending the straps and the ties are clean because they are in the back of the gown (and we know no medical provider ever turns his or her back on a patient), the neck, face, and parts of the hair face forward and are exposed - so those surfaces are dirty. They should have been covered with something that can be peeled off and laundered or discarded. Since they weren't, they need to be cleaned in a way that will kill the Ebola virus, so that you don't contaminate your hands the next time you rub your aching neck, brush your hair out of your eyes, or rub your forehead - and transfer it from your hands to a mucous membrane the next time you rub your eyes, blow your nose, or put a piece of food in your mouth.

[kestrel91316]

18. I was completely right. The hospital did no training on Ebola.

And they completely ignored all CDC guidelines, protocols, and alerts.

That hospital is probably so contaminated by the gross negligence and incompetence of all involved, they'll have to declare bankruptcy and gut the place. And sanitize it inside and out with flame throwers.

[LisaL]

9. It gets worse.

"Staff donned “flimsy” hospital gowns that left the neck, head and lower legs exposed, nurses said."

http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health/dallas-nurses-unprepared-handle-ebola-victim-article-1.1974607

[magical thyme]

10. disgraceful. I'm glad they're speaking out.

That's why I've been insisting the protocol is insufficient. Hospital gowns leave your neck, head and legs exposed. There should be double layers of pretty much everything from the neck down.

Hospital gloves are too short to reliably stay over sleeves -- I end up with my wrists exposed all the time and I'm small -- if I would have to tape them shut, everybody would. I've been trying to figure out how the hell you get the tape off without potentially getting exposed. I don't see how it would be possible.

I read earlier today at work that the Spanish nurses are also speaking out. Apparently the room they had set up for undressing was way too small, making it very difficult to get out of their PPEs, and no space for a helper.

[LisaL]

11. It sure doesn't sound like the hospital was anywhere near ready for

a patient with Ebola.

[magical thyme]

12. I doubt many are. I think there is a huge disconnect between administration and

policy makers, and people in the trenches.

The people at the top have no idea how ever deeper budget cuts have impacted day-to-day health care.

[kestrel91316]

4. Poor nurses, they are all such paragons of perfection and are completely incapable of

spreading pathogens anywhere. It's this magical aura they have that ensures that they, and only they, cannot err at any time when pathogens are present, and cannot serve as fomites for passive transfer of germs.

Anytime that sort of thing happens, it is ALWAYS the fault of people who develop guidelines and procedures, and heads of large public health organizations.

I'm baffled why anyone would think THIS was necessary:

http://www.fiercehealthcare.com/story/hospitals-get-tough-hand-washing-offenders/2013-05-29

[magical thyme]

7. coming from a private cat vet who has zero knowledge or experience of how human hospitals work

I'm going to let your snark slide and just put you on ignore. Your offensive statements frankly turn my stomach.

[kestrel91316]

15. Well guess what? The people in the nursing community here on can and do

dish out the nastiness against veterinarians, but they can't seem to take it.

I've lost sympathy for them, and it will take a long time for it to come back.

[ZombieHorde]

6. Ha! Funny chart.

Might be the nurse's fault, I don't know, but the chart is definitely funny.

[LisaL]

8. Some shocking allegations of what supposedly went on in TX hospital.

"Speaking in a conference call with reporters Tuesday, an unspecified number of caregivers from the Dallas hospital said they didn’t even get the correct protecive gear for the virus until after an Ebola victim showed up in the ER."

http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health/dallas-nurses-unprepared-handle-ebola-victim-article-1.1974607

[TorchTheWitch]

16. I wish I wasn't surprised

No wonder Friedan suddenly changed his tune and now has Ebola patients being cared for by experienced staff flown in for that purpose.

This article should be an OP.

[LisaL]

17. I bet he is scared to death.

Considering what allegedly went on, and that this hospital had over 70 people caring for Mr. Duncan, he should be.

[TorchTheWitch]

19. He should be is right

He gambled with peoples' lives for no earthly reason I can see than him wanting to prove that hospitals were prepared having said that before. Having Mr. Duncan cared for at that hospital using staff without the proper equipment, training, supervision and with continually changing guidelines from an ignorant management staff is reprehensible. SEVENTY people caring for him itself is madness.

There is no reason in the world why Mr. Duncan could not have been sent to one of the four hospitals in the country that ARE prepared to deal with such a high biosafety level contagion with the correct equipment, experienced staff, correct disinfection protocols, etc. All of the Americans infected in Africa were treated at one of these hospitals, so why wasn't Mr. Duncan? So far, the CDC has made an epic mess of this.

It also pisses me off that this same asswagon whined about not letting people fly willy-nilly out of the outbreak areas with the flaming bozo reason that they then couldn't get personnel and supplies in. What. The. Fuck. Of course you can, and easily. Military aircraft. And we've already done just fine flying infected American's home for treatment, and there's no reason on earth why anyone should be flying out of there without quarantining. Cripes, even during the worst of the plague in Europe when they had no clue what a germ or a virus was they knew THAT much concerning quarantine. You CAN'T contain an epidemic by letting possibly infected people go flying willy-nilly all over the globe. But is the CDC listening to the experts saying this? No. Screening people at airports is useless when infected people aren't yet showing symptoms, have no idea they're infected or lie on the questionnaire. That's exactly how Mr. Duncan came to be here carrying Ebola.

[LisaL]

20. Apparently the nurses were also carying for other patients, in addition to Mr. Duncan.

This is making me sick.

[orleans]

21. airport screening questionnaire for ebola:

q. are you sick?
a. um...no.

q. do you feel like you're getting sick?
a. um...no.

q. have you been in contact with anyone who was sick?
a. um...no.

okay--you're good to go!

[pnwmom]

13. Of course nurses get the blame. They're the ones doing the most hands on care.

And they get blamed if they don't catch a doctor's mistake.