We have an employee who stayed home to watch her grandson with H1N1. Do we need to have her stay home an extra day after watching him to see if she shows any symptoms? Are we being too cautious?

Any thoughts at all???

Presumably this employees would begin showing symptoms already having been exposed during the time with her grandson. No guarantee though, of course. As long as she practices proper hygiene I don't see why she should not return to work. Just closely monitor her condition.

Also be sure to add whatever decisions you make on this situation to your Pandemic Plan (part of your Business Continuity Plan). Showing your examiners that your plan is constantly evolving as a result of new and changing circumstances is always a good thing. Also, as a benefit, if you are out of the bank the next time this comes up, all of your coworkers have written guidance on this situation.

Susielou - My granddaughter recently recovered from H1N1. Neither her brothers, sisters nor mom caught it from her. I think you are being overly cautious.

I don't think one day would help you anyway, she would probably have to be out for weeks to know for sure. You are contagious with this flu longer than with the seasonal flu. CDC now reports that a person can be contagious for over a week after they quit running a fever and likely as long as they are still coughing from the flu. Not good news. Wish we had learned that before we sent little K back to school!

After several employees here have been told that they have/had H1N1 by their doctors they were also told that they could have been exposed up to ten days before exhibiting any symptoms. Based on that she would have to remain out of work for a very long time.

This is direct from the CDC's website:

CDC recommends that sick workers stay home if they are ill with influenza-like illness until at least 24 hours after they are free of fever (100° F)

I wonder if they haven't yet updated the site with the info they released last week on it lasting a week or more.

And that is free of a fever without any medication to bring the fever down.

From above link:
How long can an infected person spread this virus to others?
People infected with seasonal and 2009 H1N1 flu shed virus and may be able to infect others from 1 day before getting sick to 5 to 7 days after. This can be longer in some people, especially children and people with weakened immune systems and in people infected with the new H1N1 virus.