Face masks

[SchoolNurse91]

So, my superintendent asked me to buy face masks. I've looked... everything is sold out. Do you know of any places that have them in stock?

[Kitiger, RN]

How well does fit-testing work when you must wear glasses?

[Wuzzie]

23 minutes ago, Nurse and Spy said:

You said N95 mask are useless. That is not correct. They filter to 0.3 microns, not 0.5 and they offer some protection, which is better than none.

Directions on how to fit test a mask are available online and anyone who passed nursing school has the intelligence to perform a fit test.

Again I corrected it in a subsequent post and the filtration depends on the manufacturer. The acceptable range is from 0.3-0.5 microns. The virus is 0.1-0.2 microns. The fact that a fit test can be performed has no bearing on whether it actually is being done. Please refrain from continuing to quote posts that have been corrected. Thank you.

4 minutes ago, Kitiger said:

How well does fit-testing work when you must wear glasses?

Or have facial hair.

[SchoolNurse91, BSN, RN]

22 hours ago, ihavealltheice said:

Did you tell him that standard surgical masks do nothing anyway and that only the N95 respirator masks work to prevent the spread and even if you had them, every person would still need to be fit tested to ensure they have the correct size?

We have about 10 boxes of N95 masks. Why? No clue. I didn't order them.

[ihavealltheice]

7 minutes ago, SchoolNurse91 said:

We have about 10 boxes of N95 masks. Why? No clue. I didn't order them.

Hoard them for yourself when the apocalypse comes!! ?

[dianah, ASN]

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[palli]

Our district has decided...

staff: if you think you need a mask to wear during school hours, then go home bc we are not giving masks to healthy people.

students: have high fever, coughing, you are going home and while waiting on your parents, put this mask on (no, not N95) reg loop mask.

The chaos that would incur if student saw a staff member wearing a mask!!

[SchoolNurse91, BSN, RN]

On 3/5/2020 at 8:02 AM, palli said:

Our district has decided...

staff: if you think you need a mask to wear during school hours, then go home bc we are not giving masks to healthy people.

students: have high fever, coughing, you are going home and while waiting on your parents, put this mask on (no, not N95) reg loop mask.

The chaos that would incur if student saw a staff member wearing a mask!!

We already do this. I don't think the superintendent realized, though. That's gonna come to and end! We only have three boxes left. They keep magically disappearing.

[CanIcallmymom, BSN, RN]

Our district just OK'd students using masks after a big meeting that none of the nurse's were a part of. ?

[kbrn2002, ADN, RN]

On 3/1/2020 at 11:59 PM, MSO4foru said:

We need a system that dosen't penalize people for being at home sick. Just imagine one Covid19 positive employee working at a grocery store or fast food place. Buckle up folks.

That's also part of what makes this situation so fascinating as well as scary. First problem is a person that is actually infected can apparently be symptom free while still transmitting the virus for up to a couple of weeks. Another problem is symptoms might be mild enough especially in the early stages that the infected person assumes it's just a cold and goes to work as usual. I know I would.

Calling in for a cold isn't something I or just about every nurse I know does. I imagine the same holds true for many workers regardless of whatever call in policies the employer has. I am all for less punitive call in policies but there does have to be some common sense, if every employer that starts showing cold symptoms calls off the workforce will be crippled.