COVID and Family

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Hi,

I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy through these challenging times. I’ve been caring for COVID patients directly for the past several weeks and I just wanted to know what everyone else was doing as far as keeping their families safe at home (besides disinfecting shoes/clothes, etc) Are nurses still staying at hotels and not going home? With the holidays coming up will COVID nurses be spending their time alone? 
 

Thank you!

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I am wondering about this as well. We have a 6 month old that my mother in law (late 60s) cares for on the days I work. Through the Summer and fall, I cared for COVID patients sporadically. My hospital had a COVID unit so those patients didn’t usually make it up to my ortho unit. Now, with the exponential increase in cases and my hospital’s inability to staff a COVID unit(they’ve now given up and are spreading positive patients all over the hospital), my wife and baby have gone to live with the in laws for the time being. We rely on my in laws for child care and cannot in good conscience continue to put them at risk. Is anyone else doing anything like this anymore? I know it was common in the Spring, and things are so much worse now, at least where I am.

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Specializes in ICU.

I've been working covid ICU for 8 months now. I'll be honest with you- when it first started I was showering at work, changing into clean scrubs before driving home, and stripping down in my garage and going right to the shower. We weren't leaving the house, I wasn't taking my toddler out for anything. My in-laws used to watch my son, but my husband started working from home so that we could keep the baby home too. 

 

As time has gone on things have changed. I don't shower or change my scrubs anymore, but I do change my work shoes and wear clean shoes home. I cavi wipe and then UV my cell phone. I leave my work bag in the garage- still do the strip down in the garage thing. Scrubs go right into the washer, and I go right into the shower. We don't really see any friends or family, and if we go anywhere we wear a mask the whole time. My toddler goes on errands again if he needs to. My husband had to go back to the office part-time, so my in laws have my son once a week again. It's a risk, but one that they are willing to take. I wish I could live in a bubble essentially to keep my family safe, but it's just not sustainable long-term. I take precautions and always make sure I prioritize double checking my PPE, and do my due diligence to clean the unit and sanitize anything I touch. 8 months of emergency intubations, codes, and aerosolizing procedures galore and I'm still negative for antibodies. So that says something. 

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Specializes in Have done it all!.
23 hours ago, EllaBella1 said:

I've been working covid ICU for 8 months now. I'll be honest with you- when it first started I was showering at work, changing into clean scrubs before driving home, and stripping down in my garage and going right to the shower. We weren't leaving the house, I wasn't taking my toddler out for anything. My in-laws used to watch my son, but my husband started working from home so that we could keep the baby home too. 

 

As time has gone on things have changed. I don't shower or change my scrubs anymore, but I do change my work shoes and wear clean shoes home. I cavi wipe and then UV my cell phone. I leave my work bag in the garage- still do the strip down in the garage thing. Scrubs go right into the washer, and I go right into the shower. We don't really see any friends or family, and if we go anywhere we wear a mask the whole time. My toddler goes on errands again if he needs to. My husband had to go back to the office part-time, so my in laws have my son once a week again. It's a risk, but one that they are willing to take. I wish I could live in a bubble essentially to keep my family safe, but it's just not sustainable long-term. I take precautions and always make sure I prioritize double checking my PPE, and do my due diligence to clean the unit and sanitize anything I touch. 8 months of emergency intubations, codes, and aerosolizing procedures galore and I'm still negative for antibodies. So that says something. 

This!❤️
I take precautions where I must, careful as I can be and See only family that I must; My ex husband and I share watching our 7 year old grandson on diff days. I work ALF for the moment. My ex works mostly from home. My DD works in a small office & her BF works in the auto repair industry. So we have been as careful as we can be while still be in close contact with each other. 
??

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Specializes in Critical Care.
On 11/30/2020 at 9:50 PM, EllaBella1 said:

I've been working covid ICU for 8 months now. I'll be honest with you- when it first started I was showering at work, changing into clean scrubs before driving home, and stripping down in my garage and going right to the shower. We weren't leaving the house, I wasn't taking my toddler out for anything. My in-laws used to watch my son, but my husband started working from home so that we could keep the baby home too. 

 

As time has gone on things have changed. I don't shower or change my scrubs anymore, but I do change my work shoes and wear clean shoes home. I cavi wipe and then UV my cell phone. I leave my work bag in the garage- still do the strip down in the garage thing. Scrubs go right into the washer, and I go right into the shower. We don't really see any friends or family, and if we go anywhere we wear a mask the whole time. My toddler goes on errands again if he needs to. My husband had to go back to the office part-time, so my in laws have my son once a week again. It's a risk, but one that they are willing to take. I wish I could live in a bubble essentially to keep my family safe, but it's just not sustainable long-term. I take precautions and always make sure I prioritize double checking my PPE, and do my due diligence to clean the unit and sanitize anything I touch. 8 months of emergency intubations, codes, and aerosolizing procedures galore and I'm still negative for antibodies. So that says something. 

Same here. Although I do change into clean scrubs and shoes before leaving work (don’t shower at work though, that was never an option), wipe all my stuff down and don’t bring it into my house. My husband has been working and the kids are now doing in person classes (also change when they get home). Kids being home just wasn’t sustainable long term because we gotta work.

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I am Not sure if this video by ZdoggMD has been shared here before but it’s eye opening informative please watch.

https://www.instagram.com/tv/CIiguDzp62b/?igshid=1krln5k6fl6ue

 

https://fb.watch/2gVDnonB8z/

 

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