To exoect the care homw I work in to tell me there is an MRSA outbreak???

[youngbutnotdumb]

I have been working in a care home for about 6 months now and in the past 4 weeks there have been 3 confirmed cases of MRSA yet none of the carers have beeninformed of this and we only found out the other day when someone walked into the office and heard the boss talking about it!

It has no been confirmed by Boss so am extremely pissed of as most o us haven't had any sort of training involving infection control and am worried sick as I have very bad Atopic eczema and it can be transfered easily due to this

Could ay one tell me more about MRSA and if there are any methods you know of which are useful. Am looking for a good hand gel also if anyone knows of one.

Soory so long.

Can't help but would have thought you local health protection unit would have been involved by now. Worth looking them up and giving them a call for advice.

When a patient/resident is found to have MRSA, there should be immediate precautions put into place by your boss.

If you have eczema on your hands, you need to find gloves that you are not allergic to. There should be no risk to you form MRSA if you take the right precautions,and you should take the same precautions with all of the patients.

You need to have the proper health and safety training, speak to your boss about this.

Thanks mummywannabe and belgo

As I'm only a Care Assistant Im not sure who has been involved so far but we were told by our boss the reason we weren't told is because she didn't want everyone in the area thinking theplace was dirty! And that we should be practising proper safety anyway so we shouldn't have been at any risk! I thought that was a bit shocking I must say!

youngandnotdumb. You should absolutely have been told!And yes you should be practising the principles of good hygiene, but they need to send you on a health and safety course!

I wish I knew who you could speak to about this. Are you employed directly by the home, or by an agency?

You should treat all the people under your care as if they are potentially affected by bacteria/virus, all the time, not just when incidents like this happen. This protects you, your colleagues and all the residents in the care home.
MRSA is not harmful to a healthy adult, but can be a problem if it invades a wound, a catheter or the respiratory tract of an elderly/sick person. It can be treated with antibiotics, but the antibiotics required are a bit more heavy duty than ones that may be used for a different infection.
Also by preventing spread of MRSA you are helping to prevent development of new antibiotic resistant strains. This is true for all bacteria though, not just MRSA, and this is why you must practice good hand hygiene at all times, with every resident.
You really do need to speak to your manager about the excema on your hands. Ask them to provide you with E45 handwash and cream, as it is important that your skin does not become cracked. Ask one of the registered nurses to show you how to do a proper handwash. Alcohol gels can make the hands sore, although you may find one that suits you, but nothing beats a good handwash. It doesn't matter that E45 (or whatever suits you) is not antibacterial, it is the rubbing action of the washing that gets rid of the bacteria on your hands. You don't neccesarily need non-latex gloves just because you have excema, unless you have a definite sensitivity to latex.
Most importantly ask the qualified staff to offer some teaching on infection control/ normal skin bacteria and hand hygiene. They cannot expect you to do a good job if they don't teach you and keep you informed of what is happening in the care home. If they don't have up-to-date knowledge they need to find someone who does.

there should also be special treatment of people with MRSA - special soap to be used for exampl (at least that's the case here in Belgium ) - how is this happening if the carers are not told about the MRSA???

timewaster is right, the care should be the same regardless of MRSA status, unless someone is being actively treated, which is unlikely unless you are in a nursing home (it required IV therapy). Most infection control is about basic hygiene, which if you haven't been trained in is appalling. MRSA is often found in the community, so it is not surprising that your home should have a few people who may be colonised or recovering from active infections. It's spread is simply controlled by meticulous hand washing and cleaning. Soap and hot water is sufficient, or you can use an alcohol hand rub, which should be supplied by the home.

It is worth ringing up your heath protection unit or PCT infection control advisor if you are worried - try having a read of this for the basics: [http://www.hpa.org.uk/web/HPAwebFile/HPAweb_C/1194947417699]]

PS why do you think there is an outbreak? Have several residents been taken to hospital recently?