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Could health care workers receive some vaccine protection from avian influenza even before a global pandemic occurs?
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Every year is a mini-drill for pandemic influenza. Hospitals vaccinate thousands of health care workers against seasonal flu, set priorities amid shortages or delays in vaccine supply, and put renewed emphasis on hand hygiene and respiratory etiquette.
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All persons entering the Level 3 Isolation room must sign the Avian Influenza Contact Log, which will be collected by Infection Control. This log will be initiated and posted by the charge nurse in the area.
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The first sign of an outbreak in your hospital may come from your employees. A cluster of sick workers in one unit raises an alarm.
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Employee safety is patient safety. After all, those employees are your patients, and by improving their work environment and teaching them about safety measures, you help them protect their patients.
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The market for nurses in Southern California is vicious. Hospitals try to entice them away from competitors by offering signing bonuses, car payments, and even closing costs on home purchases.
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Edwin G. Foulke Jr., a South Carolina attorney who represented businesses in their dealings with the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), received U.S. Senate confirmation as the new OSHA administrator.
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Washington has become the first state in the nation to require hospitals to use patient transfer equipment "instead of manual lifting"; as part of a safe patient handling program. The law, which easily passed the state House and Senate, with support from unions and the hospital association, is a landmark for the safe patient handling movement.
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Health care workers were heroes of Hurricane Katrina as they worked under grueling conditions to keep their patients alive despite lack of electricity, air conditioning and water, and sewer service.
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Editors note: This e-mail was written by Pamela McVey, RN, CIC, chief nursing officer at Biloxi (MS) Regional Medical Center, to a chief nursing officer in Natchez, MS. McVey was formerly director of infection control/employee health at the hospital. She gave Hospital Employee Health permission to reprint this e-mail, and added this postscript: " We all understand that there is no getting back to normal. We are now in the process of redefining what is normal. There is a great spirit here in the coastal counties of Mississippi. Well be OK."
