Exposed to patient positive with coronavirus

[IRN2011]

I was taking care of a patient who I admitted as a R/O caronavirus. The patient was admitted In respiratory distress and started on bipap. The patient became acutely confused and started tearing off his bipap. At the time, we were out of masks as they are being locked up in our directors office and the charge nurse was on her way to obtain another box or n95s. I watched as my patients sat dropped from 98 to 80.. to 73.. knowing the patient was RO I entered the room to place bipap back on the patient. (I instantly reported the exposure to my charge nurse who pretty much shrugged it off saying ‘hey probably doesn’t have it anyways’’. He then started to decompensate cardiovascular wise for me... blood pressure kept dropping and heart rate spiked into the 140s sinus. He ended up getting a liter or albumin plus another two liters of NS and started on Levo. I was able to stabilize him throughout the night until morning, gave report and went home.. .. when I came back that next night I found out he passed away on day shift. Fast forward a few day’s and I find out his test came back positive for coronavirus.

I talked to my clinical manager about what I’m supposed to do since I had an exposure with a known positive and their response was along the lines of.. no you can’t be tested and yes you still need to come to work until you show symptoms. This is madness... I feel like if I come to work I’ll be exposing the whole ICU to this virus but I fear the repercussions If I Call out.

[Innocent2021, ADN, BSN]

I agree. Go over the heads of those involved, all the way up until someone listens to you. You did not sign up for suicide. You cannot properly care for patients without the appropriate PPE. Whoever suspended these nurses should be exposed and embarrassed by this outrageous behavior.

[gemivrn, BSN, RN]

Hi again, I have been working in a rehab (nursing home) since the hospitals cancelled the elective surgery we only been receiving our own residents who visited ER ( falls, other health issues) the policy is that we're supposed to accommodate them all in our units for 14 days since they were exposed to hospitals with known cases of covid-19, all the staff in our unit cannot pick up any additional schedules in other units that means they're not filling up the schedules of those who are having off days, and we have to work as a CNA most of the time, they're paying us the RN rate but it was so difficult and really rough, they give us bonus this 3 weeks (40$ bi-weekly)! and some of the staff are really complaining but we feel stuck, they're not giving us enough PPE as well so we end up re-using our PPE for the whole shift, now they gave us the plastic-like gown ( looks like table cover!) and they're being wash every now and then (recycling ) other times the arms area are still damp, sometimes there's no string to tie it up at the back, its crazy, then they sent a letter to some of us asking for donations to fund the nursing home, I was thinking what the heck is this? we are overwork, lack of PPE and yet we're still being asked to donate our hard-earned salary to help them? any comments will be appreciated. thanks to all.

[Kitiger, RN]

9 hours ago, gemivrn said:

they're not giving us enough PPE as well so we end up re-using our PPE for the whole shift, now they gave us the plastic-like gown ( looks like table cover!) and they're being wash every now and then (recycling ) other times the arms area are still damp, sometimes there's no string to tie it up at the back, its crazy, then they sent a letter to some of us asking for donations to fund the nursing home, I was thinking what the heck is this? we are overwork, lack of PPE and yet we're still being asked to donate our hard-earned salary to help them? any comments will be appreciated. thanks to all.

The nursing home might be out of money.

Still, instead of donating to the nursing home, I would probably do my best to provide myself and other nurses - if I could - with homemade PPE.

I know that many will disagree with me, but if I could find a way to protect myself, I would. If the nursing home wouldn't allow me at least this, well, that would be another story.

The plastic gowns that look like table coverings . . . I'm no seamstress, but I could probably make something that would work better than a damp plastic gown with no string to tie it up at the back.

My husband has ordered a UV sanitizer that can sanitize masks. Can you do something like that (for your own use, maybe for other nurses?)

I wouldn't give it to the nursing home so they could lock it up!