Being Met as marked – patients’ experiences of being infected with community‐acquired methicillin‐resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)

Abstract

Preventing patient's feelings of being a pest, an outsider living with fear, requires urgent education and understanding about resistant bacteria and how to meet an infected patient. The results describing patients, affected with MRSA, may contribute and touch the readers to better understanding of patient's changed body image and suffering and how to mitigate these feelings.

Understanding the patient experience of health care–associated infection: A qualitative systematic review

“…Studies addressed either HAI or colonization with an HAI or drug-resistant organism (where this differentiation was provided by the author) and causative organism where known. This incorporated studies of MRSA (7 studies), [18][19][20][21][22][23][24] surgical site infection (SSI) (4 studies), [25][26][27][28] Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) (4 studies), [29][30][31][32] S aureus bloodstream infection (1 study), 33 and extendedspectrum β-lactamase (ESBL)-producing bacteria (1 study). 34 No studies reporting patient experience of carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae, an HAI of increasing global concern, were located.…”

“…Here, the sociocultural influences on perceptions of infection were most intense, where patients in all 7 studies described "feeling dirty," "having the plague," "like a modern day HIV," and "feeling like a leper." [18][19][20][21][22][23][24] The way MRSA patients were told about their colonization also influenced subsequent responses, either generating significant emotional upset or a more relaxed attitude where little was perceived as problematic, 18 particularly when information was provided by an infection specialist. 24 This type of emotional response was not characteristic of the patient with SSI, whose concern centered on finding the cause of the symptoms 25 and dealing with despair, 27 rather than feeling socially isolated because of a diagnostic label.…”

“…[18][19][20][21][22][23][24] The way MRSA patients were told about their colonization also influenced subsequent responses, either generating significant emotional upset or a more relaxed attitude where little was perceived as problematic, 18 particularly when information was provided by an infection specialist. 24 This type of emotional response was not characteristic of the patient with SSI, whose concern centered on finding the cause of the symptoms 25 and dealing with despair, 27 rather than feeling socially isolated because of a diagnostic label. It did however feature in the study of patients with ESBL, with women expressing greater guilt, anxiety, and fear over possible transmission, whereas men tended to express greater anger and irritation over lack of information regarding their situation.…”

Perceptions of Dutch nurses carrying methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus: a qualitative study

“…Furthermore, literature shows patients also experience social implications of acquiring MRSA, as patients restrict their interactions with others [24]. Moreover, MRSA patients experience feelings of being an outsider, comparing MRSA with having the plague or leprosy [23][24][25][26]. They feel marked and experience stigmatization and discrimination [12,27] as well as the nurses in our study.…”

“…One similarity is the feeling of anxiety about infecting others, paired with a feeling of contagiousness and dirtiness [11,22,23]. Furthermore, literature shows patients also experience social implications of acquiring MRSA, as patients restrict their interactions with others [24]. Moreover, MRSA patients experience feelings of being an outsider, comparing MRSA with having the plague or leprosy [23][24][25][26].…”