COVID and Winter coats

[Kitiger]

I'm a private duty nurse, home care. I posted this under Specialties/Private Duty, but I think I'll get more traffic here. MODS, is this OK?

Right now, I'm working in two homes, neither of which have COVID. I wear a KN95 mask all shift except when I eat. To eat, I go into another room, wash my hands, briefly remove my mask and quickly eat a piece of fruit and drink a bottle of Glucerna. Then the mask goes back on and I wash my hands.

How should I eat if there is COVID in the home? Same? I can't go outside while I'm responsible for the child. These kids have trachs, vents, and/or they choke easily on excess secretions.

Another question: with COVID in the home in the Winter, since I have to wear a Winter coat when it's cold outside, how do I keep the coat clean? Even if I wear a gown the entire shift - which is what my supervisor says would be required - how can I keep my coat from coronavirus contamination? I don't believe one gown for a 10-hour shift will fully protect me. When the weather was warmer, I figured I could simply throw an old sheet over the car seat, and take it in to wash each day. (We do a load of laundry every day, anyway, the sheet could go in with the work clothes.)

I have extra coats, so I could have a dedicated coat for each home. That way, maybe I could hang the coat up separately, in the basement?

What do you think? Am I being too careful? Not careful enough? 

[TAKOO01, BSN]

Hi, I'm not sure that this will work in COVID times, but when I did home health, I wore a packable down coat. At each client's front door I took the coat off and stuffed it into my backpack.

[Kitiger, RN]

4 hours ago, Hoosier_RN said:

 The nurse can only carry necessary items (pen, stethoscope, dressings, etc) with them. The last time I did HH, bed bugs were rampant in many homes, and the same rules became necessary to protect staff, so I totally get it from HH management perspective

I regularly work private duty in two different homes, and I use a different workbag for each home. Sometimes, we deal with bedbugs. Since bedbugs crawl but don't jump, my bag goes on a (clean) folding chair if the home has bedbugs. I spray the seat of the chair with alcohol before I leave.

53 minutes ago, TAKOO01 said:

Hi, I'm not sure that this will work in COVID times, but when I did home health, I wore a packable down coat. At each client's front door I took the coat off and stuffed it into my backpack.

That's a good idea, but I'm thinking that coat would be expensive, right?

[Corey Narry, MSN, RN, NP]

27 minutes ago, Kitiger said:

That's a good idea, but I'm thinking that coat would be expensive, right?

I've seen less expensive packable down coats at UNIQLO...again this is a store that's popular in California so the materials may not be suited for the real Winter weather.

https://www.uniqlo.com/us/en/women/down-collection

[Elektra6, ASN, BSN, RN]

Private duty here. I wear cheap, washable old navy fleece jackets into house. Put it in plastic bag with your stuff. Wash with your scrubs.  Leave heavy coat in car and throw over the fleece. Should be clean enough.  

[TAKOO01, BSN]

On 11/15/2020 at 9:20 PM, Kitiger said:

That's a good idea, but I'm thinking that coat would be expensive, right?

I bought mine on the Land's End site. It is mid calf length with a hood and cost about $60 on sale, if I remember correctly. It is actually a great time to buy a coat -- Black Friday and all ?

[guest1143647]

This is why I say HH nurses are more at risk that nurses in LTC and hospitals. 

First,nobody is getting tested. Not us nurses,and not the patients.

My job does not give adequate PPE. We get surgical masks and one face shield. I've had this face shield for 5 months  now.  No gowns,no N95,nothing.

I work with aerosol treatments every day.

 

[Kitiger, RN]

I do multiple nebulizer treatments every day, that's why the KN95 mask. The surgical masks gap too much at the sides.