School of Nursing Policy 4.5

4.5 Return to Class or Clinical after an Illness

(Revised 11/3/2023)
Health Care Providers (HCP), including students who develop fever and respiratory symptoms,
should be:

1. Instructed not to report to work, or if at work, to stop patient-care activities, don a
facemask, and promptly notify their supervisor and infection control
personnel/occupational health before leaving work.

2. Reminded that adherence to respiratory hygiene and cough etiquette after returning
to work is always important. If symptoms such as cough and sneezing are still
present, HCPs should wear a facemask during patient-care activities. The
importance of performing frequent hand hygiene (especially before and after each
patient contact and contact with respiratory secretions) should be reinforced.

3. Excluded from work until at least 24 hours after they no longer have a fever (without
using fever-reducing medicines such as acetaminophen). Those with ongoing
respiratory symptoms should be considered for evaluation by occupational health to
determine the appropriateness of contact with patients.

4. Considered for temporary reassignment or exclusion from work for seven days from
symptom onset or until the resolution of symptoms, whichever is longer, if returning
to care for patients in a Protective Environment (PE) such as hematopoietic stem cell
transplant patients (HSCT).

Source: https://www.cdc.gov/flu/professionals/infectioncontrol/healthcaresettings.htm