2014 Global Ebola Outbreak

[terry78]

I assume that comic is next to Heathcliff in the Sunday.

 

[Doctor Evo]

Spoiler

O...kay?

 

[Guts]

O...kay?

I don't know what it has to do with Ebola. But someone's getting their head chopped off.

 

[Doctor Evo]

I don't know what it has to do with Ebola. But someone's getting their head chopped off.

...'kay.

Here, have this:

Spoiler

 

[chamber-music]

I wouldn't be worried. That British nurse Willl Poole got Ebola about a month ago and is cured or atleast no longer contagious. The guy even flew to Atlanta to give blood samples and help the guy infected with it there.

 

[Flint Marko]

You are correct it requires contact with fluids, but it is also known that Ebola could infect you by entering even the smallest wound. You'd have to make sure your hands are covered up VERY well if you are coming into contact with it.

Once you have contact with the fluid, it is very easy for Ebola to enter your system.

Interesting. Well I still hold to the fact that it sounds rather difficult to get, I could see the virus spreading to two or three more people potentially but after that I think it'll be the last we hear of it. People shouldn't be worked up into a frenzy over this unless you yourself came into contact with patient zero.

 

[Slushy]

Not sure if government conspiracy, but common sense would tell you not to bring an infected person into an area to risk causing an outbreak. Then again, the stupids are in charge.

 

[Enriquespy]

Sooo... leave them there to die?

no.

 

[BestGirl]

Not sure if government conspiracy, but common sense would tell you not to bring an infected person into an area to risk causing an outbreak. Then again, the stupids are in charge.

A government conspiracy to introduce ebola?

 

[Thundercrack85]

Let's not blow this whole thing out of proportion. Yes, this is a serious disease. Precautions should be taken. And some people in Texas should probably be out of a job.

But by the end of the year far more people in America will have been killed by falling out of bed, and autoerotic asphyxiation.

 

[Marvolo]

U.S. Nurses Say They Are Unprepared To Handle Ebola Patients

Nurses, the frontline care providers in U.S. hospitals, say they are untrained and unprepared to handle patients arriving in their hospital emergency departments infected with Ebola.

Many say they have gone to hospital managers, seeking training on how to best care for patients and protect themselves and their families from contracting the deadly disease, which has so far killed at least 3,338 people in the deadliest outbreak on record.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has repeatedly said that U.S. hospitals are prepared to handle such patients. Many infectious disease experts agree with that assessment.

Dr. Edward Goodman, an infectious disease doctor at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas that is now caring for the first Ebola patient to be diagnosed in this country, believed his hospital was ready.

The hospital had completed Ebola training just before Thomas Eric Duncan arrived in their emergency department on Sept. 26. But despite being told that Duncan had recently traveled from Liberia, hospital staff failed to recognize the Ebola risk and sent him home, where he spent another two days becoming sicker and more infectious.

"The Texas case is a perfect example," said Micker Samios, a triage nurse in the emergency department at Medstar Washington Hospital Center, the largest hospital in the nation's capital.

"In addition to not being prepared, there was a flaw in diagnostics as well as communication," Samios said.

Nurses argue that inadequate preparation could increase the chances of spreading Ebola if hospital staff fail to recognize a patient coming through their doors, or if personnel are not informed about how to properly protect themselves.

At Medstar, the issue of Ebola training came up at the bargaining table during contract negotiations.

"A lot of staff feel they aren't adequately trained," said Samios, whose job is to greet patients in the emergency department and do an initial assessment of their condition.

So Young Pak, a spokeswoman for the hospital, said it has been rolling out training since July "in the Emergency Department and elsewhere, and communicating regularly with physicians, nurses and others throughout the hospital."

Samios said she and other members of the emergency department staff were trained just last week on procedures to care for and recognize an Ebola patient, but not everyone was present for the training, and none of the other nursing or support staff were trained.

"When an Ebola patient is admitted or goes to the intensive care unit, those nurses, those tech service associates are not trained," she said. "The X-ray tech who comes into the room to do the portable chest X-ray is not trained. The transporter who pushes the stretcher is not trained."

If an Ebola patient becomes sick while being transported, "How do you clean the elevator?"

Nurses at hospitals across the country are asking similar questions.

A survey by National Nurses United of some 400 nurses in more than 200 hospitals in 25 states found that more than half (60 percent) said their hospital is not prepared to handle patients with Ebola, and more than 80 percent said their hospital has not communicated to them any policy regarding potential admission of patients infected by Ebola.

Another 30 percent said their hospital has insufficient supplies of eye protection and fluid-resistant gowns.

"If there are protocols in place, the nurses are not hearing them and the nurses are the ones who are exposed," said RoseAnn DeMoro, executive director of National Nurses United, which serves as both a union and a professional association for U.S. nurses.

Unlike influenza or the common cold, which can be spread by coughing and sneezing, Ebola is only spread by contact with bodily fluids from someone who is actively sick. That means the risk to the average person is low, but for healthcare workers, the risk is much higher.

As of Aug. 25, more than 240 healthcare workers have developed the disease in Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone, and more than 120 have died, according to the World Health Organization.

Many of these infections occurred when healthcare workers were removing the personal protective gear - masks, gowns, gloves or full hazmat suits used to care for the patients, said biosafety experts.

Sean Kaufman, president of Behavioral-Based Improvement Solutions, an Atlanta-based biosafety firm, helped coach nurses at Emory University through the process of putting on and taking off personal protective equipment (PPE) while they were caring for two U.S. aid workers flown to Atlanta after becoming infected with Ebola in West Africa.

Kaufman became known as "Papa Smurf" to the Emory nurses because of the blue hazmat suits he and others wore that resembled the cartoon character.

"Our healthcare workforce goes through so many pairs of gloves that they really don't focus on how they remove gloves. The putting on and the taking off doesn't occur with enough attention to protect themselves," he said.

Nurses say hospitals have not thought through the logistics of caring for Ebola patients.

"People say they are ready, but then when you ask them what do you actually have in place, nobody is really answering that," said Karen Higgins, a registered nurse at Boston Medical Center.

Higgins, an intensive care unit (ICU) nurse, said hospital officials have been teaching nurses on one of the regular floors how to care for an Ebola patient.

"I said, well, that's great, but if the patient requires an ICU, what is your plan," she said. "They looked at me blankly."

http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/5926828?utm_hp_ref=tw

 

[Thundercrack85]

Having had my dealings with nurses, a lot of them aren't adequately trained to take your blood pressure, administer eye drops or weigh you.

How anyone has a nurse fetish is beyond me. But I digress.

 

[Teelie]

I also take a lump of salt with anything the Huffington Post declares. There's enough holes to poke in that story I'm not even going to bother.

 

[Marvolo]

Ive always been fortunate with nurses. Sweet and caring and hard working. The doctors on the other hand. I dont have a nurse fetish, but of the working people in the world they are some of my favorite. They put up with literal and figurative **** and dont get a tenth of the recognition or the respect they deserve.

 

[Anita18]

I actually read in a medical technology news article that the nurses did what they should have - but it was the EMR system in place that didn't show the doctors the nurse's notes. Nurse note was default visible for other nurses, but not doctors. It was the customization they had, and they've switched it to make nurses' notes visible for doctors and nurses after they realized what happened.

http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20141003/NEWS/31003997

And people ask me why I switched from cancer research to pursue design in healthcare...

 

[MessiahDecoy123]

Having had my dealings with nurses, a lot of them aren't adequately trained to take your blood pressure, administer eye drops or weigh you.

How anyone has a nurse fetish is beyond me. But I digress.

It's all about getting a sponge bath from a young hottie.

Or so I've been told.

 

[Howlett]

Not sure if government conspiracy, but common sense would tell you not to bring an infected person into an area to risk causing an outbreak. Then again, the stupids are in charge.

Well, since the US government didn't bring him into any area, an airline did, your "not sure if conspiracy" is already blown out of the water.

 

[Howlett]

U.S. Nurses Say They Are Unprepared To Handle Ebola Patients

It sounds more like they don't WANT to handle ebola patients(kind of like how AIDS was viewed for awhile), and I can't say I blame them really. But that is the job they chose.

 

[Marvolo]

Not entirely. They chose to be a nurse in America which up until now did not include Ebola. I'm willing to bet that we will be seeing openings in the nursing field if this was to spread to many other parts of the country. Nurses are underpaid and many women choose the job, but only because they feel they dont have any better career option least not one they can afford to get into or because they don't have the time to go to school for something else. But some likely wont want to stay in a field that could result in them bringing Ebola home to their family or getting themselves killed and leaving their kids parentless.

 

[Anita18]

I know several nurses. All of them choose the job because they love it. (One friend was an AIDS nurse back in the 80s, right out of high school. She clearly loves the job.) Being a nurse is like being a teacher - it's otherwise so thankless they might as well do something else that's easier and/or pays more money. Nurses are no dummies, most of them are perfectly capable of doing something else.

But they ARE overworked, no question about it. I once had a nurse as a roommate and some days she would have day shifts and other days have night shifts. It got switched around fairly often. They are expected to do everything, pretty much. So it doesn't surprise me that nurses are not looking forward to Ebola patients. The only thing you can do for Ebola patients normally, is to give them IV fluids and monitor them. And guess who'll be doing all that? Nurses.

 

[Marvolo]

I know several nurses. All of them choose the job because they love it. (One friend was an AIDS nurse back in the 80s, right out of high school. She clearly loves the job.) Being a nurse is like being a teacher - it's otherwise so thankless they might as well do something else that's easier and/or pays more money. Nurses are no dummies, most of them are perfectly capable of doing something else.

But they ARE overworked, no question about it. I once had a nurse as a roommate and some days she would have day shifts and other days have night shifts. It got switched around fairly often. They are expected to do everything, pretty much. So it doesn't surprise me that nurses are not looking forward to Ebola patients. The only thing you can do for Ebola patients normally, is to give them IV fluids and monitor them. And guess who'll be doing all that? Nurses.

A lot of girls in my area have become a nurse simply because that was the best option of their available options. It was nursing, fast food, or factory work for them. I come from a poor BFE county in NC with very few options. While Im sure nursing is a passion for many girls and guys, its just a pragmatic decision for many others. But you are most certainly right. If you lack the passion for it you likely wont last in that job, and I've seen it first hand. My sister, my best friends wife, and her friends have all been nurses off and on and they always leave the job for the same reasons: terrible hours, an insane amount of time dealing with people's fecal matter, and poor pay. Nurses always get the **** job. They are the grunts on the ground. The enlisted of the hospital field. And just the way some doctor's treat them is unacceptable. This Ebola situation will just be one more piece of **** on top of an already everest sized **** mountain for the nurses in this country.

 

[Schlosser85]

Patient hospitalized in Washington DC with possible Ebola

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/ebola-outbreak-patient-hospitalized-in-d-c-with-possible-ebola-symptoms/

 

[Farren]

A lot of girls in my area have become a nurse simply because that was the best option of their available options. It was nursing, fast food, or factory work for them. I come from a poor BFE county in NC with very few options. While Im sure nursing is a passion for many girls and guys, its just a pragmatic decision for many others. But you are most certainly right. If you lack the passion for it you likely wont last in that job, and I've seen it first hand. My sister, my best friends wife, and her friends have all been nurses off and on and they always leave the job for the same reasons: terrible hours, an insane amount of time dealing with people's fecal matter, and poor pay. Nurses always get the **** job. They are the grunts on the ground. The enlisted of the hospital field. And just the way some doctor's treat them is unacceptable. This Ebola situation will just be one more piece of **** on top of an already everest sized **** mountain for the nurses in this country.

Yeah, nursing is one of the few jobs out there that doesn't require additional schooling (ie getting a Master's pr PhD) but which pretty much guarantees that you'll have a "professional" job, a decent paycheck and job security. My mother is a nurse and she made enough to raise me as a single parent, own a home, etc. Me, I have a BS in Biochemistry and make 8.50/hr as a temp worker at a department store because I can't get hired in my industry. While there are a lot of passionate, career-minded nurses out there, it's also a job that a lot of women go into because it was the best option.

They do get treated like %$#@ though. That's why I could never do it.

 

[terry78]

Nobody goes into nursing thinking they have to deal with deadly strains. Well, some might.

 

[Teelie]

I would expecting that going into healthcare you know the risks of contracting some pretty nasty stuff people bring into a hospital.