Who here works in a hospital or clinic?

[Remali]

It was on the News again tonight, the H1N1 is really going from bad to worse. It was on our local News, and now it's on the National News. Pretty scary how virulent this flu is and how many it affects. The county just north of me has been hit hard this week with a rise in people with the flu. :(

I work at a small hospital, so of course now I'm worried about taking precautions. We had a meeting a couple days ago about wearing masks, etc. What types of precautions are they doing where the rest of you guys work? Heck, even if you don't work in healthcare, I bet most places are taking some type of precautions.

[dame_wolf]

I got an email sent to me by someone that works in a hospital about gargling with salt water and blowing your nose real hard and then swabbing with salt water to keep from catching it or keep it from catching hold. I was gonna make a thread for it but I'll just post it here.

[dame_wolf]

Prevent Swine Flu - Good Advice


Dr. Vinay Goyal is an MBBS,DRM,DNB (Intensivist and Thyroid specialist) having clinical experience of over 20 years. He has worked in institutions like Hinduja Hospital , Bombay Hospital , Saifee Hospital , Tata Memorial etc.. Presently, he is heading our Nuclear Medicine Department and Thyroid clinic at Riddhivinayak Cardiac and Critical Centre, Malad (W).

The following message given by him, I feel makes a lot of sense and is important for all to know.

The only portals of entry are the nostrils and mouth/throat. In a global epidemic of this nature, it's almost impossible to avoid coming into contact with H1N1 in spite of all precautions. Contact with H1N1 is not so much of a problem as proliferation is.


While you are still healthy and not showing any symptoms of H1N1 infection, in order to prevent proliferation, aggravation of symptoms and development of secondary infections, some very simple steps, not fully highlighted in most official communications, can be practiced (instead of focusing on how to stock N95 or Tamiflu):


1. Frequent hand-washing (well highlighted in all official communications) .


2. "Hands-off-the- face" approach. Resist all temptations to touch any part of face (unless you want to eat, bathe or slap).

3. *Gargle twice a day with warm salt water (use Listerine if you don't trust salt). *H1N1 takes 2-3 days after initial infection in the throat/ nasal cavity to proliferate and show characteristic symptoms. Simple gargling prevents proliferation. In a way, gargling with salt water has the same effect on a healthy individual that Tamiflu has on an infected one. Don't underestimate this simple, inexpensive and powerful preventative method.


4. Similar to 3 above, *clean your nostrils at least once every day with warm salt water. *Not everybody may be good at Jala Neti or Sutra Neti (very good Yoga asanas to clean nasal cavities), but *blowing the nose hard once a day and swabbing both nostrils with cotton buds dipped in warm salt water is very effective in bringing down viral population.*


5. *Boost your natural immunity with foods that are rich in Vitamin C (Amla and other citrus fruits). *If you have to supplement with Vitamin C tablets, make sure that it also has Zinc to boost absorption.


6. *Drink as much of warm liquids (tea, coffee, etc) as you can. *Drinking warm liquids has the same effect as gargling, but in the reverse direction. They wash off proliferating viruses from the throat into the stomach where they cannot survive, proliferate or do any harm.

[gabhainn]

I work in a dialysis clinic, so yeah we have fliers everywhere about what to do. most are common sense, hand washing, limited facial contact, masks as well as sheilds, changing gloves after each separate contact (when dealing with the same patient, we always change between patients), limiting casual contact (handshaking/hugging). cleaning all environmental surfaces with a 1:100 bleach solution, reporting anything that is a possible symptom....and about a jillion other things that are common sense in a clinic where we deal with copious amounts of blood. the most important thing you can do is to wash your hands anytime you touch something, if you dont have the facilities to do so use Purell or another alcohol based hand cleaner. The CDC has reported that it is at least as effective as washing with antibacterial/anti viral soap, and is easier and neater IMO............Kevin

[Pinky]

Thought I'd add: a good way to clean inside nostrils is to get a salt water solution, put it in a glass and put your nose in the glass. Then blow through your nose - you'll find it helps to get the saltwater futher back. (I've been doing this with my septum piercing for a while.)

[Remali]

Interesting! I hadn't heard of that about the salt water, but I sure am willing to give anything a try.

The county just north of me has just gone from Low to High now, for the number of people with H1N1.
Maybe I'll get a gas mask?!! I work in Housekeeping, I go in to clean all the patient rooms. Initially I was told that I'd be working in the clinic (there are two clinics and one hospital here in my area), mainly cleaning exam rooms and offices.....but for some reason they stuck me in the hospital, so I am a bit nervous about that because of the higher chance of getting crud.... altho I am happy to have the job, I feel like I am at Ground Zero. I just wish some people who work in the hospital would be more careful.... when a patient has a highly contagious condition they post it on the patient's door, and then you know that extra precautions need to be taken....such as gowning up, etc. Well, Monday I was cleaning a room, I always look before going in.....nothing was there.... just some usual-looking paperwork, but I did not see the sign that they hang on the door for taking precautions. So I started to clean the room. About 10 minutes later as I am leaving the room someone walks by (a CNA or RN I think, I don't know everyone there yet) and they ask me if I know I had to gown up for that room. I told them I looked and there was no sign or any indication that I needed to take extra precautions.....she then said there was a sign, I told her to show me because I never saw it.... So, there it is.... but it was not visible at all, it was totally covered up by a blank piece of white paper and some other stuff. It is supposed to posted on the door in plain sight. I was not happy at all. I reported that to my supervisor, and mentioned that she ask that whoever is attending to those signs be more alert to making sure the signs are not covered up by other stuff.

Apparently we will be getting special masks to wear now, just for the H1N1, should we have people hospitalized with it.

I just heard they ran out of flu vaccines here already.... wow, that was sure fast.

Good idea too about the Purell, I have a bottle of that with me at work.

[3equines]

http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/masks.htm

http://www.cdc.gov/H1N1flu/qa.htm

Straight from the horses' mouth, so to speak.

I do my weekly clinical roatations in the med/surg unit of our regional hospital. H1N1 vaccine is supposed to be made available to hopsital employees and healthcare students in early November. So far the first batches of vaccines are being made available to health care workers, the very young, and persons with compromising medical conditions.

Several contacts in my community have been diagnosed with H1N1. So far I have had flu-like symptoms for about 3 days but managed to fight it off, so it is hard to tell if I was exposed or not, generally I am pretty healthy. Most of us won't know the difference between H1N1 and the regular old upper respiratory tract infection:

runny nose
sore throat
fever
ache, chills
prolonged cough

so far there are still more deaths from 'regular old influenza' than H1N1. Both diseases have the highest mortality rate in the very young and immunocompromised clients.

CDC is not reccommending vaccinating persons over the age of 65 for H1N1 becasue THEY HAVE ASSUMED IMMUNITY TO SWINE FLU due to the outbreaks experienced in the 1960's and 1970's. However, those who received swine flu vaccine in the 1970's and ar under the age of 65 should consider being immunized against H1N1 when the vaccine becomes widely available.

Remember that vaccine supplies are limited.

If you are NOT in direct contact with at-risk people (very young, chronic health complicaitons, immunocompromised) and ARE otherwise a healthy adult, you may CONSIDER not being immunized against H1N1 so that the vaccine can be more readily available to those who need it the most.

[mare]

I work in a variety of healthcare settings and provide direct patient care. We're following the CDC guidelines, which are the basic universal and droplet precautions.

[mustangluver]

I work in a psychiatric hospital, they are already planning for us to loose 30% of our staff. They have purel EVERYWHERE and no one is to come to work if they have a fever. Also before anyone including employees are allowed on the units they need to have their temp taking and vitals. The H1N1 vaccine might be mandatory for us.

[sarhound]

Left the hospital (OR, recovery, and critical care) and now work in home health. We carry hand gel, wash hands in client's homes, and I won't go near any of my older folk if I think I've got something-- they have too many comorbidities, and I can't run the risk of any of them developing pneumonia, or having their electrolytes thrown off by diarrhea. Most of my patients have had their flu shots-- we can't get them, the vaccine has run out. I'm trying to stay away from crowds and small children so I don't become a carrier.

[rocknK]

As part of my work duties I'm in & out of a "free" medical clinic & a mental health clinic. I'm convinced that's where I picked up the bug I had a month ago. I cannot remember being that sick. After the third day in bed my wife asked me ifn' I wanted to go to the Doctors I replied "no, I'll die right here!". She thought I was joking! I was off 3 days of work, stayed in bed over the weekend, then returned to work. I was useless the whole next week, but thats really hard to tell!:p

[Remali]

LOL. I know what you mean. There's feeling sick, and then there is so sick you cannot move and cannot get out of bed. I think that time I was so doggone ill I picked it up at work, it hit me about a week after I started at the hospital. The H1N1 has really taken off at where I work....the number of people out sick doubled in just a matter of a day or two last week. I can relate to the feeling useless part..... this virus, or whatever all the bugs are that are going round....really knocks ya for a loop.