Eye protection for ALL patient interaction

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Anyone else work for an organization that has decided that eye protection (face shields or goggles) are required for ALL patient contact, COVID or not? Just wondering whether anyone has any data or references supporting or refuting this practice. Trying to navigate the stupid eye protection on top of glasses and masks, it's getting to be ridiculous. Has there been even ONE recorded ocular exposure case of COVID detected. And how would they isolate an exposure in the eyes? I guess if someone was wearing their N95 and still contracted the virus, maybe, but I think the whole "identifying" the source is sometimes BS anyway. There could be an asymptomatic carrier anywhere and any time. Thanks for any research or resources anyone might have. (Yes, I could Google, but I've been awake since 5am yesterday so I'm being lazy. I think it's obvious I'm beyond the school assignment phase, ha,ha).

1 hour ago, MunoRN said:

It's part of the recommendations that also address Aerosol Generating Procedures (AGPs), the basis of which is one of the, if not the most embarrassing thing to come out of a prominent and otherwise reliable scientific group.

Frankly I consider it problematic because it was *not* stupidity; it was very purposeful.

Just like the emergency bandana baloney.

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Specializes in Critical Care.
20 minutes ago, JKL33 said:

Frankly I consider it problematic because it was *not* stupidity; it was very purposeful.

Just like the emergency bandana baloney.

What 'purpose' would this have served?

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Well, I can say what purpose it did not serve, and that would be the well-being and safety of health care workers caring for sick patients during a pandemic.

You chose the word embarrassing. I think you used that word because of how obviously ridiculous the AGP concept is in this situation. My opinion is that it is not a coincidence or a random one-off when an authority-type institution well-advised by experts suddenly comes up with obviously ridiculous advisories that helped allow many employers to put workers at specific increased risk with impunity.

You don't have to agree, but it was too much for my sensibilities.

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My current primary employer now requires eye protection for all patient contact. Very annoying to me as I am not a fan of wearing goggles over glasses or the face shields that get in my way. I was working extra shifts for them, now I cut back to my scheduled hours and am picking up shifts at a new per diem position that does not require eye protection.  Both jobs do require vaccination and masks for all contact which does not bother me. The infection control dept  had one article to support this, and when I read the article it actually said if we are going to tell the general public to mask we should also tell them to cover their eyes as both are potential routes of transmission.

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Specializes in Cardiology.

My workplace follows OSHA guidelines which says everyone should wear eye protection and N95. Well we obviously don't have N95's but 99% of the employees do not wear eye protection. I have glasses so to me that's enough. Im not wearing eye protection over my glasses nor am I wearing a face shield. 

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Specializes in New Critical care NP, Critical care, Med-surg, LTC.
1 hour ago, OUxPhys said:

Im not wearing eye protection over my glasses nor am I wearing a face shield. 

I work night shift so to this point I've mostly been able to do the same. However, sometimes I work over into the 7-11am and they're constantly hounding us. Which I find ridiculous. 

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We've been required to wear eye protection (goggles or face shield) for all patient interactions for a few months now, basically from when Delta started spiking.  I don't think it's necessary, but it's not my hill to die on either.  It's a mild annoyance, not a major inconvenience. I already wear glasses, so an extra wrap around is no big deal.

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Specializes in Nurse Leader specializing in Labor & Delivery.

We've been required to wear eye protection for any patient care contact (I.e. not required for check-in staff, just clinical staff) since the beginning of the pandemic. I admit that our clinic has very mixed compliance, mainly because as the manager, I don't hound the staff about it. I, and we, have bigger fish to fry. And we have 100% vaccine compliance among staff, so I'm not extremely worried. If a patient comes in with any covid symptoms, then the nurse and clinician seeing the patient does always wear full PPE, including eye protection.

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We have to wear goggles or full face shield for all pt interactions. I’m the only one who does, in addition to the providers. We’re an office and not acute care or inpatient, so it’s kinda weird having to goggle up to do consent forms.  

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Specializes in Geriatrics, Dialysis.

Apparently we were supposed to be wearing face shields for all patient contact since the beginning. There for quite awhile we stopped as we were under the impression that requirement was done, turns out we were wrong so back to wearing the face shield at all times it is...sort of. Compliance with this is shall we say less than stellar. 

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Specializes in Step-down, PCU, Intermediate Care, LTAC, ICU.

I travel to different facilities. The one I am currently is an LTAC that requires masks and eye protection of some kind when providing patient care to ALL patients. We are also required to mask certain patients (if they can handle it). Visitors are required to maintain a 6ft distance from patients and staff. The reasoning is anybody can be contageous at any time.

Most of the patients we care for are post covid recovery, VDRF, and complex wound/medical cases that can't be managed at a SNF. We had a mini outbreak happen where a few rooms were positive after being inside the facility for over 2 weeks. Clearly, staff/visitors broke policy for this to take place.

Had I not been wearing my eye protection and mask when my trach patient coughed on me (prior to knowing they were covid), I would have ended up with sputum in my eyes. I went in to pass meds, so under normal circumstance I would not have worn eye protection as I was not expecting a possible "splash".

I can't say if I would have caught anything from that, but I was glad to have it there. It seemed ridiculous until that happened.

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Specializes in Peds.

Am I the only one that does not see requiring eye protection for all patient contact as ridiculous?

 

The eyes are a mucous membrane after all. 
I know it hasn’t been studied, but maybe there was a study showing that Covid can be contracted through the eyes after all?

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