Amen! At least someone is rational on this subject. I love it when I get to work and everyone's talking MRSA. Our infection control people moan, since they'll be busy talking all day.
I get the pleasure of swabbing anyone who comes to our unit who meets the criteria (see CDC site--most of mine had long hospital stays).
Haven't run into much MRSA lately, but plenty of VRE these days. Isolation carts (and private rooms) for all of you!
...was "gonna die of Melissa."
ROFLMAO!! That's better than the lady at our church several years ago who was worried that her grown daughter was getting interested in Botulism after seeing the Dalai Lama (no kidding).
Nothing says "I love you" like a mouthful of Enterococcus faecalis.
OK. Dude, that's just nasty.
I'll take MRSA anyday over a confused ECF pt with Clostridium Difficile...
"Nothing says 'I love you' like a mouthful of Enterococcus faecalis."
OMGosh! ROFLMBO! You should have taught handwashing at sandwich shops, where they'd handle money, then just rinse their hands before making the next sandwich. They'd look at me like I was crazy and rude when I asked them to use soap before making my sandwich. I told them all they were doing was giving the germs (they got from the money) a drink of water.
Hubby groans when I have him wash his hands after going to Walmart. But then I ask him why doesn't he lick a couple of shopping cart handles while he's there, it's almost the same thing. I'm not as bad about other stores though, unless it's flu season.
Nurse William, please post more often, pretty please.
Tonight the local news on 4 and 7 led with Panic, Terror, Horror in the Streets and in our SCHOOLS and it's just dreadful for the chilllllldren. I wanted to see the next story about someone who attacked two women and find out what part of town this was. I finally said, "Wait, I can look on the web" and turned off the damfoolishness on the TV. The panic and alarum and nonsense is amazing. I want to know what these morons will do if we ever have a real epidemic. Did they never hear of the boy who cried wolf?
Wow, that's just amazing! Hysteria 
Over here in Europe the public have known about the so called 'hospital bacteria' or MRSA for ages and don't really care.
Did you know that up to 10% of the garots (the elastic band you put around the arm to cut venous blood stream when taking blood) is actually infected with MRSA? And it just keep changing patients as it follows the nurse around.
I'm actually wondering what the protocol is over in the states on nursing such patients. Protective measures for positive patients here are a sign on the door, yellow robes, gloves and masks for the nurses and hand hygiene for nurses and visitors.
Carol- Thanks for gracing my humble blog!
Sensationalism- that's the media for you. They don't think about the long-term effects of their stupid panic-mongering stories. They care about ratings.
Basic precations. You don't have to wear a spacesuit to deal with somone who has MRSA.
Hephi- the precautions you describe are what we in the States call "contact precautions"- which is precisely the appropriate measure to take with a MRSA patient.
However, a CDC article states that a person is less likely to acquire MRSA from equipment (i.e., garote, BP cuff, etc.) than from a person who had not washed his/her hands.
Ah, Mersa. I have learned so much about it this semmester. It's been around since 1961, I've heard. But if the news is reporting on it, it must be important! We're all gonna die! Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhg!
Good post, Nurse Willam. We were isolating patients with MRSA in my surgical ICU back in 1982, and it was not new then. The infection control nurses cultured all of us on the nursing staff, and we were negative because we washed our hands alot. This isn't vodoo, its microbiology.
Basic rule of thumb: expect over 50% of any science topic discussed on a news program to be wrong.
Good article, if anyone reading this needs an additional dose of MRSA sanity: http://healthlink.mcw.edu/
conten...1031002819.html
Nurse William! Mongo need more blog! Write more blog for Mongo, or Mongo get mad!
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