Hepatitis The law and the operating room nurse

Abstract

With the current discussion surrounding the AIDS crisis, it is easy to forget that AIDS is not the only communicable disease which could threaten the O.R. staff. Various forms of hepatitis are more prevalent. What makes one form, hepatitis B different from AIDS is that there is a vaccine and it is not necessarily fatal. Nonetheless many issues affecting the disease and the OR. nurse must be considered: 1. Does the O.R. nurse have a duty to the patient to be vaccinated? The answer to this question depends on whether it could be shown that a patient is at risk of contracting hepatitis from an infected staff nurse. Since this is very unlikely, there would ordinarily be no such duty. Similarly, the hospital has no duty to the patient to have its staff vaccinated unless there is a risk of exposure.