When healthcare workers fear for their own health
A thoughtful “Doctor and Patient” article by Pauline W. Chen, MD, in The New York Times, May 21, raises an issue that I think is never too far removed from the minds of healthcare professionals.
“I believe it’s a privilege, a calling, to take care of patients. And I believe that in deciding to practice medicine, I have consented to an unspoken contract with the public, one that requires that I take care of those who are sick. Lately, however, I have also begun to think that there is another side to that contract. Maybe there are obligations that the general public has to its health care workers,” writes Dr. Chen.
The article examines what it is like on a daily basis to balance caring for patients—some with potentially life-threatening infectious diseases—while ensuring your own health and safety. (For other recent posts on the dangers of healthcare see “Healthcare profession not injurious to your health? Wrong” and “Finding safety in poetry on Workers’ Memorial Day.”)
Chen recounts that vulnerable moment—”feeling the floor beneath my feet give way”—when she experienced a needlestick from a patient she knew had hepatitis C.
She didn’t contract hepatitis C on that occasion and has been “stuck, cut, coughed on, scratched and splashed several more times.” And each time she gets that same feeling.
According to a study published four years ago by Dr. Kent A. Sepkowitz from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York and Dr. Leon Eisenberg from Harvard Medical School, an estimated 17 to 57 deaths per million healthcare workers occur annually in the U.S as a result of occupational exposures.
That calculates to 300 per year, but, as Chen emphasizes, that‘s only an estimate—probably an underestimation at that—since, unlike other high-risk occupations, there is no national registry of healthcare worker deaths from on-the-job infections and injuries.
Maybe there should be, says Chen, something that not only recognizes and supports “the extraordinary decisions of ordinary individuals” in providing care, but also as “part of the agreement between health care workers and those they serve.”
Has concern for your own safety affected the way you treat patients with potentially infectious diseases? Take the OSHA Healthcare Advisor poll, or let us know in the comment section below.
Take our survey; win a training video
We had so many visitors to the OSHA Healthcare Advisor that we want to know you better—what you do, and who you do it for. Click here to take a short survey. If you answer all the questions, you will be eligible to win a FREE Respirator Safety for Healthcare Workers training video. It’s the perfect training video to help prepare for pandemic influenza.
« Ask the expert—Even the OSHA boogeyman gets a bad rap, sometimes | Home | A breathalyzer test for your hands »
-
Categories
- Ask the Expert—Bloodborne Pathogens
- Ask the expert—General OSHA
- Ask the Expert—Hazard Communication
- Bloodborne Pathogens
- Emergency Action Plans
- Featured
- First Aid
- General Safety and Health
- Hazardous Waste
- Infection Control
- Lab Safety
- Needlesticks & Sharps Injuries
- Notes from the field
- OSHA – Citations & Fines
- OSHA – General
- Pandemic Influenza
- Popular
- Uncategorized
- Waste Management
- Weekly Poll Questions
-
Archives
-
Feeds
David LaHoda
David LaHoda, the managing editor of Medical Environment Update and OSHA Watch, has produced healthcare training videos and consulted for medical practices and ambulatory healthcare facilities.
David has written 196 posts.
Leave a Comment