Flu PSA from emergency room nurse

Fuck you Katt. My newborn baby just loves the smell of disinfectant so I’m going to bring him to the ER if I want to. Just what do you imagine we pay you for?

She's right though. Let me go run and get a flu shot!

I like her. She’s right.

Hope she makes a follow up video with tips for her fellow nurses and doctors.

They are some of the biggest "vectors" of transmission.

Also, should you wear your scrubs in public? On the street, on the bus/subway, outside of the ER, the world full of germs. Maybe take the time to change in and out of civilian clothes? Maybe nurses should go back to wearing all white so we can see how clean (or dirty) they are. We can notice the droplets of blood and smears of snot, excrement, and other bodily fluids they've accumulated throughout their day in the ER.

Just sayin'

Ugh. So patronizing and grating. This fraubot probably gave several unwitting people the flu when she stopped at Publix (for a meatball sub and chips, y'all!) after making her lame PSA.

Why is she wearing her (probably germ-coated) stethoscope over her seatbelt? Who does that?

Remember folks, flu season means to stay the hell away from self-righteous fraubots in scrubs whenever you're out and about!

Cut her some slack. She deserves a medal for dealing with fucking annoying Floridians all day long without macing them.

"Testing positive for the flu"? 1 out of 8? What test for the flu?

WASH YOUR STINKIN' HANDS.

R7 Yes, there is a test to see if the flu is what you have. Don't kill the messenger. Yeah, she's a tiny bit testy, but so would the rest of us be if we had to work a 12 hour shift in the ER, and if our bosses had determined that there really isn't any time in that 12 hour shift for us to eat. Everything that she said is true. 80,000 people died in the US from the flu last year. The vast majority of those deaths were preventable if the patients had just engaged in a little prevention. She's trying to help. I've already had my flu shot, and that's one of the most critical steps. If any of you haven't done that, go do it.

Cunt! I hope her next patient kicks her right in the vagina bone.

Ugh. Every year it's always said "it's a terrible flu season!" I don't remember all this flu hysteria thirty years ago. It seems to have ramped up over the last ten years.

She speaks the truth, but her tone really puts me on edge. That southern sarcasm BURNS.

She's exhausted and hungry. I'd say she showed great restraint in her presentation. Don't forget she deals with the public 24/7 when they are usually at their worst.

If the flu was a big of a concern as everyone makes out, then they'd be giving the shots free. You can't find anywhere to give you one for free.

I haven't even seen insurance that in the last decade, will allow you to get the shot free at a drug store like CVS, Walmart or Walgreens. No you have to pay your doctor and then it's "free."

Most Fortune 100 companies offer the vaccine onsite for free to their employees.

R14, mine fly shot was free, with my insurance, at my Rite-Aid pharmacy. NYC here.

^^^flu^^^

What’s sad is 30-30 people waiting for hours in the emergency room, because that’s likely the only place many of them can get affordable medical care. But “cesspool of funky flu” is catchy!

"You ain't dyin' currently."

Nothing but truth in this video.

We’re living in a country where our government looks the other way as 1000s of people die in Hurricanes and wildfires. And where whole counties are engulfed in an opioid crisis. And yes, where infants and the elderly are dying from easily treatable infectious diseases.

But please do trash a an impassioned healthcare worker who is demanding that we wake up and be accountable for our own wellbeing.

You do realize that even the DL is succumbing to the current plague of heartlessness.

Oh, and Boris, please don’t say ‘Dear, please take a nap’ or some such other bullshit that you’ve appropriated from other actual authentic DLers.

Hospitals have become incubators for MRSA and all sorts of nasty (and avoidable) viruses and bacteria.

This nurse needs to look in the mirror and dump those scrubs of hers in the biowaste bin. She's literally swabbing the outside world with her garment, walking into the ER, and treating patients.

God forbid she take the time out of her busy day to change clothes.

The PBS American Experience episode ”Influenza 1918” was horrifying - so many died so quick that people had to store corpses in their garages. It’s crazy how severe a flu pandemic can be. Drowning in your own bodily fluids is a terrible way to die.

Every healthcare worker gets frustrated with the stupidity and irresponsibility of regular people regarding health issues, and if this bitch is a bit testy it's because she's from Florida. Florida, World Capital of Stupid and Irresponsible!

But it's true that Influenza can kill, and every year I lose at least one patient to it, some years I lose several. And we never know when the next 1918 is going to happen, the influenza virus is out there happily mutating away, and one of these years it's going to mutate into something that kills quickly again, so develop your good habits NOW. Wash your hands frequently, use hand sanitizer, cover your mouth when you cough. How fucking hard is that.

Thanks for your comments and hard work, nurse @ R23 ... Any extra comment on protocols staff should be better following themselves? Hygiene, scrubs, etc.

You can tell by looking at someone that they don't need emergency care? Bitch please! Christmas Eve 2013 my brother in law was feeling great. In the early hours of Christmas day he woke my sister to take him to the ER because he was having abdominal pain. It was pancreatitis and he died two days later. My dad developed a strange lump on his chest and drove himself to the hospital. It was an aortic aneurysm but luckily they airlifted him to another hospital for emergency surgery. He recovered and lived another 8 years.

R24, where I work, there's an endless number of protocols intended to prevent the transmission of anything from patient to staff, or patient to patient. I follow them. My co-workers follow them. We are not stupid people, we don't want to either catch or transmit anything deadly.

However, I can't promise that everyone in an overwhelmed Florida ER is doing the same.

[quote] Also, should you wear your scrubs in public? On the street, on the bus/subway, outside of the ER, t

She’s in her car, Einstein

I did 6 months in an ER as a clinical rotation & that was enough for me. The thing that really made me laugh was the whole idea of what constitutes a fever.

“Have you had a fever?”

“Yes”

“How high”?

“Very high.”

“What was your temperature?”:

“Oh, I don’t know. But I felt my forehead and I was hot.”

“So you didn’t use a thermometer”

“No. I don’t have one. I can tell when I have a fever.”

“Do you feel like you have a fever now?”

“Yes.”

She must have teleported into her car, R27. And she's obviously on her way somewhere outside of the sterile confines of the ER.

Go to any major city and you'll see equally knowledgeable hospital staff riding the bus and/or the subway in their scrubs.

[quote] She must have teleported into her car, [R27]. And she's obviously on her way somewhere outside of the sterile confines of the ER.

She’s going home after a 12 hour shift.

She’s in fucking Florida. There’s no public transport there. At least not the kind that anyone but the poors would use.

After a 12 hour shift in what is described as a viral hot zone of cross-infection, I'd jump my ass into a shower and some clean clothes before heading home. I'd also probably make a stop at the grocery store and hug my kids as soon as I walked in the door.

But, I'm neither an ER nurse, nor a Florida resident.

I love her.

If she's in Florida she probably deals with a disproportionate amount of old people, which might have set her off even more, since they can't weather an illness as well.

When I was a fed, we were all offered free flu shots. We'd go over to the federal building and line up. I thought this was brilliant when I was new in 1998. "How proactive. I bet this saves lots of tax dollars on sick time. And think of all the civilians we interact with." Then I got to the federal building and found there were three nurses there to administer immunizations to all the federal employees in Dallas, TX. I was in line for hours thinking "People warned me about going to work for the government. The waste, the inefficiency. And I see now, they were right!"

They did learn from their error. The next year they had several nurses to handle the immunizations. No ridiculous waste of time.

What if a company like Walmart or McDonalds gave its employees free shots and administered them on site. They'd cut down on sick time. And think of all the customers they interact with.

[After a 12 hour shift in what is described as a viral hot zone of cross-infection, I'd jump my ass into a shower and some clean clothes before heading home.]

I worked a 12 hr shift last night and my hospital doesn't give nurses access to the changing rooms with showers. Those are for the doctors only. Often if I'm leaving after a long shift (longer than 12 hours, that's just the time you're assigned as the nurse), I'm facing a commute and having to come back again after another commute to repeat the same, so any time spent changing out of my scrubs is precious sleep lost.

Unless you're licking dirty scrubs, making tea out of them, or putting them in a plastic bag with your head and huffing them, they won't make you sick. Touching the gas pump, the keys on a pinpad, money in your own wallet, elevator buttons or a thousand other daily items is a lot dirtier than sharing space with a person wearing scrubs who just left a hospital.

Why won't they let you use the changing rooms or showers? Do you steal?

R36 for the same reason they give doctors a special dining room, sleep rooms, and designated parking: privilege.

First, a thank you to the nurses doing the hard work of public health.

However, if you are an ICU RN working a 12+ hour shift, commuting home and back to work another shift in the ER in the same scrubs, you need to find time/ make time / pressure management to create time to address your personal hygiene.

I wish a TV news program would do an exposé and swab down the scrubs of a nurse who spent two overtime shifts working in an ER. I would wager that all sorts of bacteria and viruses would be found.

I want to be clear that I'm not advocating coming home in dirty scrubs, sleeping in them, and returning to work in them. LOL. Gross. But when the hospital doesn't provide a changing room with showers and every minute I stay at work after my shift ends lengthens my commute, I have no problem leaving in the scrubs I worked in. [italic] Then I get home, shower, change, sleep, change, and return to work.[/italic] And I suspect the majority of my coworkers do as well.

R38, you should be a lot more concerned about the surfaces left uncleaned in hospitals like remote controls, call lights, bed rails, etc. Those places really do harbor gross things and you're unlikely to put your hands on your nurse's scrubs like you would a funky light switch or doorknob.

My workplace offers free flu shots every single year. Like voting in this country, only about half of us take advantage of it, while the rest make excuses. People in the latter group claim the flu shot “gave them the flu” one year, so they refuse to get it. Or they don’t want the “toxins” in their body. Or it’s just a ploy by “big pharma” to make money. Or “they said it was useless last year, so why bother?”

I’ve observed that many of these people are the same ones who never cover their mouths when they cough or sneeze, show up at work when they’re clearly sick to show their “dedication,” and think running their hands under the faucet a split second constitutes washing their hands.

I’m on team nurse. Get your flu shot, wash your hands, cover your mouth when you cough or sneeze, and teach your kids to do the same.

People are dying because they apparently don’t understand hiw infection occurs. If they need their skullcaps crowbarred open, so be it.

Plus she’s an intelligent and common sense person ... living amongst Floridians. Imagine how that must be.

[quote]What if a company like Walmart or McDonalds gave its employees free shots and administered them on site. They'd cut down on sick time. And think of all the customers they interact with.

Yes let’s inagine this crazy dream!

By the way this video was from February 2018.

I don't ever bother with flu shots because I never get the flu. I hardly ever get colds either.

Maybe you don't get the flu because everyone around you bothered to get a flu shot and practices good hygiene, R44. You aren't blessed with a special immune system, you're blessed to be surrounded by healthy people. Herd immunity, check it out.

Amen to that my good Christian brother at r45!

Gawd, germophobes are tiresome.

No, Germophobe, good nurses may wear their scrubs home after work, but they don't go out and rub their dirty scrubs on other people or the fruit section at the grocery store. They go home, shower, change, and launder their scrubs with enough heat and strong soaps to kill any germs before they're used again. And they also avoid getting anything nasty on their scrubs while at work, if they know their patient has anything contagious or if they have to clean anything drippy, they're going to put a plastic gown over their scrubs to prevent contamination.

Or at least they do in civilized areas. I can't speak for Florida.

Walmart does give it's employees free flu shots. But many people still won't do it.

All the drug stores in FL give free flu shots.

I live for this bitch - she’s spot on. But of course the average EQ and IQ of this nation continues to plummet, so I understand her frustration.

Amen, r50.

Uh, oh...

LUUUUUUUUUUUUV HER !!!!! THANKS, OP !!!!!!!!!

God, that voice is fucking annoying. Is that what Floridians sound like IRL?

LOVE her!

She needs her own reality show. She could do house calls or open up a clinic.

I got the flu last year from the nurse the Visiting Nurse Service sends to check on my 90 year old. I got sick as a dog and passed it to my mother. I felt like I was dying and my mother almost died. It was a fucking nightmare.

Love her. I never get flu shots (because I never get the flu), but I will this year.

I teach at a community college and a flu shot is a necessity because it would never occur to students to do it. I get it in August or September at the latest. If you have a Costco membership, it's the cheapest place to go. I also carry hand sanitizer and tissues and start popping zinc lozenges at the first sign of a cold.

I got a kick out of her and her scathing disdain for willful idiots.

Me too, r60. She's a natural. Would love to know her or have her as a relative. She's a hoot.

Call me whatever you want, but the only time I ever got sick with the flu was when I had the shot, while working in a hospital, and following strict protocol. Go figure.

1/3 of the people in my office are down with the flu. Our company has its own private clinic and they cannot manage the number of walkins.

I don’t believe in flu shots. Like other vaccines—what’s in them can be more harmful than the disease they are supposed to prevent.

I've gotten my flu shot for free (covered by my insurance) at CVS.

I always get the flu shot, but I also got the flu two years ago.

I was in bed for ten days. 102 degree fevers. Chills in a room heated to 80. Excruciating headaches.

I can now understand how someone could die from it.

I get my flu shot for free - and a $20 coupon for groceries at Safeway.

I would watch this nurse on a reality show.

I never thought I needed a flu shot until I actually had the flu twenty years ago. I live alone, and I can still remember having an internal debate on whether I should try to crawl to the bathroom to pee, or wait a day or two until I felt stronger. I ended up waiting a day until I was strong enough to crawl that twenty feet. I've had a flu shot every year since then. I'm fortunate enough to work for a company that provides free flu shots during our yearly health fair. I had to bite my lip when two granola frau supervisors were counseling their minimum-wage employees to skip the free flu shots because "they just didn't believe in them."

Me too, R69. I had the flu when I was 26 yrs old and for 10 days I was so sick with high fever I could hardly turn over in bed. My mom had to come stay with me. Never missed my annual flu shot since then. A couple of yrs ago, I did get flu anyway but it was much milder, even though I still felt very ill for a week. A lot of people call bad colds “flu” but if you have have really had influenza, you know it.

Love her

She's awesome.

Plus, she's from a very STUPID part of Florida where the residents need a lot of CLEAR EXPLANATIONS.

Love her.

R64 That's been proven to be untrue. The chemicals and compounds in flu vaccines (or any other vaccines) are harmless unless you have some sort of allergies. The food you regularly eat is probably more poisonous. Did you know that much of the processed food we eat contains the same ingredients used in making house paint, fertilizer, airplane wing de-icing fluid, and shoe leather softener? There's a ocean of food additives that are fucking up our health. You anti-vaccine people lack basic critical thinking skills and fortunately, legislation has been/is being/will be passed in many places forcing people to at least get their children vaccinated against diseases that once ravaged the population. If you people had your way, civilization would be in dire straits.

[quote]Like other vaccines—what’s in them can be more harmful than the disease they are supposed to prevent.

R64, would you rather roll the dice with a polio vaccine or polio itself? Ever seen an iron lung?

How about smallpox? Oh, right, that was eradicated by.... wait for it... A VACCINE.

You're a moron who's lucky, immunologically, to be surrounded by better educated and less selfish people. You're welcome.

I would have more respect for her advice if she dropped off those scrubs into a bin before heading home.

I'm pro-flu-shot, but this year I got the flu, 6 weeks after getting the vaccination. It was pretty bad, 3 days of fever and chills, and a cough that lasted 2 weeks. It happens.

R76 it’s entirely likely to get a flu shot and then an entirely different strain of flu. The flu vaccine is developed based on projections for the most probable flu strain. Last years was not the most effective.

You may have gotten a worse case if you hadn't received the shot, r76.

bish please. I never get flu shots or use hand sanitizer and I haven't gotten sick in several years. We were made to get dirty.

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

Oh good, a fear-mongering anti-vaxxer.

Who's laughing now, people?