I was caring for one of my 6 patients the other day, with a diagnosis of nausea/vomiting, dehydration, (and headache which was not on the diagnosis). The next day he starts having signs/symptoms of meningitis. This young man has a stiff neck, fever of 106 F. True we use standard precautions, but who knew? 

A couple of years ago, we had a gentleman who had been in the hospital for at least 2-3 days for flu/bronchitus or a similar diagnosis. On his DISCHARGE DAY, I mean, I am literally giving this man his discharge instructions after the doc seen him; a fax comes from lab that I luckily intervened  with his sputum sample showing MRSA.  The discharge was then cancelled and the appropriate antibiotics were initiated. Again, we used standard precautions, but ........   (I had a terrible bout of sinusitis after that, hmmmmmm)

We had a discussion at work about pregnant nurses caring for patients with a questionable diagnosis of TB. The patient's with this questionable diagnosis are roomed in the few isolation rooms we have for airborne isolation, just in case. One of our pregnant nurses was concerned about caring for these patients. The staff always took these patients so she wouldn't have to. I  guess someone complained and this nurse was told she had to care for these patients. After all, we never know who or what diagnosised patient we are caring for. We still cared for the patient's who had potentially harmful diagnoses, for this nurse.

While it is true we never know, at least at first, the true diagnosis of a patient when they first come in with "grey-area diagnoses" like nausea/vomiting/diarrhea/dehydration. Why not work as a team and not put our pregnant nurses in a situation she doesn't have to be in. The situations, we don't know about are bad enough. And even though there are face masks, gloves, gowns, to be worn, I just do not see the problem if the nursing staff pitches in and cares for the isolation patient's and the patient's that come into the hospital with signs/symptoms that could be potentially harmful to our pregnant nurses.

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS?

Sincerely,

Patty :-)

Potatoes cut into bite size pieces -

- boil until done - drain

Onion - at least one large - diced

Butter 1/2 stick (or maragarine)            Sautee' onion in the butter

Make a rue with flour and sautee'd onions/butter. Add milk and 1 can of celery soup. Thin with milk until it is the consistency you like.

Combine potatoes and onion mixture. Add some cut up Velvetta and seasoning salt.