On Tuesday I attended the greater Fort Worth Chapter AACN meeting on Ebola at JPS. The AACN provides a local forum to assist critical care nurses in meeting challenges through the use of networking, communication, and research. The purpose of the meeting was to educate health care workers on facts from the past and present regarding the Ebola Virus disease. Dr. Salam Jarrah, who specializes in tropical diseases created the presentation due to many questions concerning the recent epidemic in Africa and Ebola patients in the US.
Dr. Jarrah spoke about the modes of transmission, which includes direct mucus membrane or percutaneous exposure to infected body fluids such as stool, vomit, blood, and possibly sweat. Dr. Jarrah led the discussion with presentation style leadership and answered questions after the topic was presented. A common misconception is that Ebola is airborne, however there is no direct evidence of the Ebola virus in transmitted via aerosolized particles. The clinical features of Ebola are important in distinguishing the virus from other common diseases.
Early symptoms of the disease include fever, headaches, diarrhea, vomiting, stomach pain, muscle pain, and unexplained bleeding and bruising. Late signs may include DIC, liver failure, shock, metabolic acidosis, PE, and ascites. Dr. Jarrah emphasized that not all patients progress to the hemorrhagic phase of Ebola, which can be deadly. Dr. Jarrah also presented on lab features, people under investigation, as well as factors contributing to the epidemic. This meeting was to inform the health care workers with the facts and she discussed misconceptions commonly seen in the news.
For example, lack of clinical resources is a barrier to clinical care and lack of skilled personnel constitutes a barrier to Christopher Rodriguez Community Assignment clinical care. Sticking to the facts is important in helping the Ebola cause and not giving a negative stigma to disease like the AIDs epidemic in the 70s. As a future nurse, this meeting was helpful in ways to prevent and detect Ebola, especially if I want to be an ER nurse. This deadly disease is already an epidemic in West Africa so it is important to be aware to stop the spread of Ebola.