face shields

Nurses COVID

Published

A regulatory agency just came through our hospital and mandated all clinical staff wear face shields in addition to masks regardless of unit. We have designated Covid units, but even in other units, even at the nursing station, etc..

Anybody else doing this? Anybody have a link supporting this? It seems ridiculous.

On 6/29/2020 at 8:39 PM, AutumnLeaves said:

However, we still aren't allowed to wear face shields or N95s unless the pt. is positive. We still wear a paper mask for a week @ a time.

Sounds like some people need to go fly a kite. To put it kindly.

1 Votes
On 6/28/2020 at 1:16 PM, Rose_Queen said:

Required for all patient care for the last month regardless of COVID status. Before that, it was if in the room for greater than 10 minutes on non-COVID and at all times for PUI or COVID+.

We are finding a lot of asymptomatic positives as we test all elective surgery patients.

Same for us. Our manager provided us with very nice low profile goggles because the hospital supplied ones suuuccckkkkeeedd.

2 Votes
Specializes in Med Surg, Tele, Geriatrics, home infusion.
2 minutes ago, Wuzzie said:

Same for us. Our manager provided us with very nice low profile goggles because the hospital supplied ones suuuccckkkkeeedd.

Nice ☺️ good manager!

2 Votes
2 minutes ago, scribblz said:

Nice ☺️ good manager!

I work with a really special group of people and our manager recognized that. It’s so nice.

5 Votes

They are required for all patient interaction at my hospital, but not at the nurses station. In addition to protecting eye and nose and face from splashes, we were told it is to help protect the ONE surgical mask that we wear all day long.

2 Votes

My hospital requires them at all times on any patient care unit, regardless of what kind of patient you are providing care for. Honestly, I was a lot more diligent about hand washing, not touching the front of my mask, and cleaning my face shield when it was part of my routine to exit each room and not something that was expected to stay on at all times. I’ve noticed that wearing a mask all the time has made me lazy about meticulous mask hygiene since it’s basically just part of my face now. Pre-universal masking, I never would have pulled it under my chin or let to dangle on the side of my face. We aren’t required to clean our face shields unless visibly soiled or when removing it. So, mine gets cleaned far less but I’m still following protocol.

I think the face shields when not providing patient care are overkill. If I’m wearing a mask, my coworker is wearing a mask, and neither one of us is coughing or hacking and we are also maintaining as much distance as possible, we shouldn’t need the face shields too. It honestly makes it more difficult to do my job (gives me a headache trying to read the computer through the foggy plastic), makes my face hot and sweaty and probably ruins the integrity of my mask. So maybe that’s why I have to wear it? Nobody believes for a hot minute that my single-use surgical mask is still containing my droplets 8 hours into my shift. :shrug:

0 Votes

My hospital had staff wear face shields for all patient interaction until a couple months ago when the state started opening up and we had "adequate" PPE & it was changed to droplet/airborne precaution patients only. We are now at an all time high with COVID patients compared to March/April, so I have a feeling we'll be back to universal faceshields again.

1 Votes
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