AmAnDa: AIDS- Is standard precautions enough?

I am a student nurse. Recently I was in clinical and was taking bloodsugars. For those of you who dont know what this is: it is when you have to poke someones finger to draw a little blood and put it on a slide to measure the glucose in someones blood. I put on my gloves and poked the patients finger. I had a little trouble getting the blood to the surface and had to squeeze it a couple times. The patient was a jerk, but I got it done. Later it was brought to my attention that this patient was an AIDS patient. Standard precautions were followed and I was at no risk of contracting the virus, but I was outraged! It was my first time dealing with a patient with AIDS and i did not know that there would not be some sort of information on the fact that he had AIDS! I think it is absurd that noone told me that the patient had AIDS. When I brought it up a nurse laughed coyly and said “patient confidentiallity! HIPPA!” ARE YOU KIDDING ME? What about student nurse rights, or protection??! I understand that the patient has a right for his own information to be private, but I think that when a health care professional is at risk that is when the patients rights are of lesser concern! I think there should be a little sign on the door with like a flower or something so you know to be extra careful! I mean when a patient has a history of MRSA they have contact procautions all over theyre door! Yaya universal precautions, well universal percautions do not protect you from splashing!

This entry was posted on 8. June 2009 at 22:37 and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.