Both nurses were 26 and being charged with direct care for the murderous Duncan. The CDC as well as the hospital are complicit. More experienced staff SHOULD HAVE BEEN supervising and caring for a deathly sick Duncan.
I am not indicting those 2 young nurses, but questioning the wisdom of those in charge to place younger newly graduated nurses in this position. These young nurses are brave but...
This is is wrong on every level.
If they completed a BSN, they could have four years of experience if they started work upon graduation - more if they received an AAS in Nursing.
I don't think it's unreasonable to consider that if more HCWs get sick, that the PPE and care protocols in place were inadequate.
As an RN myself I completely agree with you on this.
I read on Pham’s bio that she graduated from nursing school and went directly into critical care nursing. When I graduated from nursing school, this rarely happened and was discouraged. It was believed that a new nurse needed experience on general medical surgical floors gaining experience before being considered for a position on a critical care floor. The things you learn on a general med surg floor are building blocks for patients that have more demanding care needs.
A new nurse is just not going to have enough practice and experience to deal with such complex patients. For example, on a general med/surg floor she might have practiced donning PPE for a MRSA patient who was under contact precautions. Here she (hopefully) would practice taking on and off equipment that she needed to protect herself...but without the risk of dying from Ebola.
Again, you are 100 percent correct on this issue. The reason why hospitals are putting green nurses in over their heads? They can pay them less.