Don’t Feel Well? Stay Home
Saturday, January 5, 2013 @ 5:27 AM
Prince George, B.C- Northern Health is hoping you will help them out, by staying home if you don’t feel well.
The flu season has arrived, and this time of the year is prime time for outbreaks of gastrointestinal illness and the common cold. The challenge is to keep them out of the hospital.
"These illnesses are circulating in the general community, increasing the likelihood that long-term care residents, hospital patients and staff in some facilities will come down with a contagious virus at some point,” said Dr. David Bowering, acting Chief Medical Health Officer for Northern Health. “We need the help of visitors to these facilities in limiting the spread of these illnesses.”
Northern Health puts increased infection control measures in place during suspected outbreaks in health care facilities. In order to limit the spread of illness, the threshold at which a medical health officer may declare an ‘outbreak’ and impose such restrictions is quite low – in fact, it can take as few as two cases within a short time frame to prompt an increased focus on hand-washing, restrictions on visitors to an affected facility, and staff movement between facilities.
Northern Health will advise if any outbreak requires more stringent infection control measures to be put into effect, in the event they could impact health services for the general public.
There are several ways to help prevent the spread of illness in the general community, and to health facilities:
• staying at home if you are not feeling well;
• not returning to work or school until you are feeling well and your symptoms have resolved (in the case of influenza, until 24 hours after you are free of fever)
• careful hand washing: wash your hands often, and well. Use warm water and soap, and scrub for at least 20 seconds. Always wash your hands after coughing or blowing your nose, after using the washroom, before eating or preparing food, and after helping someone who is ill (such as an ill child).
Comments
Staying home is the best idea, but sadly most employers don’t see it that way.
Thank you very much I think I will.
I think that way of thinking is changing in the work force cherry1970…. employers are concerned about the entire work force including themselves.
My ex-employer got really grumpy if you missed a day due to sickness. The motto seemed to be “Go to work first to see if you can handle it”…!
Supervisors would come to work sick (and couging) and stand there and talk to you… I started asking them to leave when they did that and told them they should never have come to work where they could infect other employees. I also told them if I got sick (from them) that they’d be on the hook for paying my wages if I stayed home. For some reason that always made them REALLY MAD!
Thankfully something clicked and they eventually realized that by coming to work sick you’d be infecting other employees.
But sadly, they started to demand that you get a note from your doctor.
So I’d call my doctor, get the very first appointment available (usually 7 to 10 days away) and I’d get a note that read something like… “This person could not come to work because THEY said THEY were sick 7 days ago.”
The supervisor would read it and ask “What the heck is this” to which I’d reply… “It’s the doctorâs note you asked for… and he has no idea if I was sick or not last week.”
Such a joke and such a huge waste of our health dollars.
Too right newtechie, not to mention the cost of these doctors notes. Last time I got one was in 2007, cost 10 bucks. Now with inflation I guess a doctors note is 25 bucks. I’ll be going into work sick.
Agree with cherry… My employer expects me to be here, sick or not. Told me if I can get someone to cover my shift I can stay home but otherwise be here!
I think now adaze during flu season I should be allowed to call in well…
My employer took away our sick days because they claimed they were abused and so now if we are sick, they will encourage us to come into work regardless. We do not get paid for a sick day if we need the time off to get well. Just have to budget for the fact it could happen at any time and not expect to get paid for it.
I think I`m going to betrading my sick dayz for drunk dayz.
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