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Blog spotlight: MRSA is not a scarlet letter

Nurse Leader Weekly, June 16, 2008

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This week, Sharon L. Taylor RN, BSN, MS, CIC, CPHRM, shares her insight on the nurse's responsibility to patients regarding MRSA:

MRSA is fast becoming a household word. It is seen in the national media on a frequent basis. Healthcare workers are being scrutinized by patients and their families for their infection control practices, especially handwashing. While this publicity is good in that it has increased the attention paid by healthcare workers to their practice, it also has a scare effect on patients, on the public, and surprisingly, even on some healthcare workers. While being afraid of "catching" something is good because it puts us on alert, it can also cast a stigma on those who have an infection or are colonized with bacteria such as MRSA.

I propose that it is part of the nurse's role, as patient advocate, to be sure that MRSA patients have the information needed to live their lives while minimizing the risk of transmission. If the appropriate information is given to patients, situations such as the one that occurred last fall where a young elementary school student was banned from attending class because she had a MRSA skin infection will not exist. She was subsequently allowed to return after the appropriate information was given to school officials, but had the damage already been done?

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