Can ppl read their own PPD?

:uhoh21:Is it ever ok to have a person "read" their own PPD , and call the nurse if there is anything "unusual"?
There should be a policy. The policy where I work is any nurse can read it, but you can't read your own.

Well, what if we are not even talking about health professionals...just lay people reading their own?

No lay person should read their own TB skin test. They don't have the knowledge or the background to know what is normal and what is not. I read my own TB skin test at home over the weekend when I had been required to get it done immediately due a known exposure several weeks before that was just confirmed. Well, it was grossly positive. Even I, a trained nurse, had wondered what was going on with the redness on my arm because I had forgotten about the test. Then the lightbulb came on and I realized what it was. A layperson could have chalked it up to a bug bite or a reaction to some other substance, especially if it was as large as mine was - nearly my entire forearm.

No patient should be reading their own, because that is a risk, because they are not taught how to evaluate it, and plenty of times, I have had to either get a second nurse or a doctor to evaluate behind me.I do know that some of nurses that have administered a PPD for their fellow collague, and then, the collague will tell their friend whether it was regular or positive (because she can't come in that day, was off, on vacation...and the friend will document). Not quite the right thing to do, but I am not surprized.

It is too important not to have a nurse confirm the result. Even if the subject is a nurse, a second opinion is appropriate for documentation purposes if nothing else.

Quote from classicdameIt is too important not to have a nurse confirm the result. Even if the subject is a nurse, a second opinion is appropriate for documentation purposes if nothing else.

You can read your own PPD for the sake of information, but you should have someone else read it and do the documentation to eliminate any appearance of a conflict of interest.

No patient should read his or her PPD even though some can tell if it is positive but it's not that they are reading it.In my facility,any nurse can read her PPD but the thing is to avoid denial,it has to be read by someone else like the employee health.

Quote from galenightNo lay person should read their own TB skin test. They don't have the knowledge or the background to know what is normal and what is not. I read my own TB skin test at home over the weekend when I had been required to get it done immediately due a known exposure several weeks before that was just confirmed. Well, it was grossly positive. Even I, a trained nurse, had wondered what was going on with the redness on my arm because I had forgotten about the test. Then the lightbulb came on and I realized what it was. A layperson could have chalked it up to a bug bite or a reaction to some other substance, especially if it was as large as mine was - nearly my entire forearm.

I remember back when I was growing up, they'd send you home with a card that had 4 different boxes. Each box had a different size of induration, it actually was raised on the card. After a couple days, you check the box most like your ppd spot, and mail it back to the doctor's office.

I can't say that's its proper, but I saw a lot of that in LTC. A nurse would get her PPD, she'd have 3 days off and didn't want to drive back in to have it read and would call another nurse and say, "It's good." And the second nurse would chart 0.0 mm reading and sign off. Like I said not proper, but done. And I plead the fifth.

One facility I was at allowed us to read our own & fax the result back to occ health, but that was the only place. Everywhere else I've either had to have another nurse read it or a supervisor.