The thing for me here, is not so much being horrible to the OP, but to make the point that being a nurse means that you are at higher risk of being exposed. And if you want to avoid the risk of falling foul of the new law here, then you would need to quit your job or accept that there was a risk if you were exposed you would be forcably quarantined.
Because there is a law to enfore it.
As it goes it appears the government are prepared to take even more draconian measures if they see fit:
inews.co.uk/news/politics/coronavirus-in-the-uk-serious-imminent-threat-powers-1556403
Coronavirus in the UK: 'Serious and imminent threat' powers to contain killer virus will be in place for two years
Exclusive: Claims that councils are not getting enough information as senior peer warns world is on the 'knife-edge of a pandemic'
The new regulations introduced earlier this week, which stated that the virus is a “serious and imminent threat to public health” in the UK, were introduced to stop an individual absconding from an isolation facility on Merseyside.
But a minister has told the House of Lords that the powers will be in place for two years, and did not rule out the possibility of the Government imposing even more draconian measures if the outbreak worsened.
and
Baroness Blackwood, the health minister in the Lords, told peers the regulations for coronavirus “will be in force for two years and will be triggered only in the instance of a serious or imminent threat to public health by a person not complying with public heath advice and therefore putting themselves and/or others at risk”.
I make the point here, that if they felt that a health worker who had been exposed to return home to her children to self isolate this is actually potentially put them at risk, and thus becomes a safeguarding issue to the children as well as something which you could be forceably be detained for.
They obviously feel that the contact with an infected person was close enough to present a much higher risk than other people who had contact with someone infected.
If 3 days have passed after this is realised then if you live with a family, then the chances are you may have already passed on the virus to them, thus self isolation as a family unit would be sensible.
However if you are exposed in a work setting and haven't left work, then you'd try to prevent anyone else being exposed by letting them return home.
Also there is the issue of NHS liability here too. If the NHS know that a member of staff has been exposed and allow them to return home and they then then pass it one to someone else, the NHS could be put in a position where they could be held liable for failing to follow basic infection control measures in the work place. If it sparked a massive outbreak then that could have huge implications.
The NHS would also have a duty of care to any family dependants who were affected by their carer being quaratined. They would not be legally able to just 'abandon' the families of those affected. They would have to take steps to look after those family members. The idea that there would be no one to look after these children is nonsense.
If the outbreak became bigger, I'm sure that the way this was done would be changed because it couldn't be done for large numbers of staff simply because of the logistics of it. But anyone who had already been exposed would have less options than someone who had yet to be exposed.
Its not about being nice or being unappreciative. Its about pointing out the reality of the situation where front line workers need to recognise this is the situation and if they are unhappy with this, then there isn't a huge amount they can do, accept leave their jobs.
But hey ho. I don't think a lot of people really fully understand the point of the measures or why they are the ones being used at present.