{"id":504,"date":"2014-10-28T21:48:53","date_gmt":"2014-10-29T06:48:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cms.shelquist.us\/?p=504"},"modified":"2014-10-29T02:05:53","modified_gmt":"2014-10-29T11:05:53","slug":"oct-28-ebola-preparations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms.shelquist.us\/?p=504","title":{"rendered":"Oct. 28 – Ebola Preparations"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"ebola\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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Ebola is a word that makes us sit up and take notice when we hear it.\u00a0 The reason why is simple: we know it is a disease that kills.\u00a0 Hospitals throughout the nation have been preparing for the possible event of having a patient with Ebola at their hospital.\u00a0 Our hospital is no exception to this trend.\u00a0 The people pictured above are health care workers in Africa dressed in protective attire.\u00a0 Their clothing illustrates the best way to protect yourself from getting the disease: wearing clothing that will prevent the germs to spread from the patient to the person who is caring for them.<\/p>\n

In some respects hospitals prepare for Ebola every day.\u00a0 We have germ transmission prevention protocols that we put in place when patients have illnesses that spread through any form of contract.\u00a0 We have different levels of precaution that are dependent on how the illness is spread.\u00a0 Prevention protocol is designed to protect the health care worker, other patients, and visitors in the hospital.<\/p>\n

Some people over the years have resisted some forms of isolation precautions because they are either time consuming or uncomfortable.\u00a0 I am struck by the fact that failure to wear protective clothing not only puts you at risk, it puts others who have no idea you have been exposed to an identified danger at risk.\u00a0 As a Chaplain, I probably won\u2019t be in a room with an Ebola patient.\u00a0 We are limiting the number of employees who can be in those rooms again to eliminate the possibility of transmission of the illness.\u00a0 In thinking about the ramifications this has on my role in health care I have thought of these methods of providing pastoral care to the patient:<\/p>\n