Many of my colleagues and I are a bit disturbed by this, and I am looking opinions/advice.
Paraphrasing the official fliers that are making their rounds, we are required to wear gown, gloves, masks, and eye protection for any suspected/confirmed H1N1 cases. The policy states that gowns and gloves are both single use items and should be thrown away after one use. The big change is that we are being "encouraged" to reuse masks - not just N95 respirators (which I can kinda understand) - but surgical masks as well until they "become wet or soiled." And while they "cannot hang on any hook, fixture, or door handle" they can "be carried in uniform pockets when not in use."
Now granted, I am still a noob of a nurse, but this goes against every bit of training related to PPE I remember.
Not only are they encouraging reusing masks, our access to supplies of them is being severly limited. My floor has unoficially been designated the "Flu Floor," 18 of our 34 patients where suspected/confirmed H1N1 last night (not to mention our plain old MRSA/VRE/etc patients). Coming onto the floor, we were told that floor stocks of masks were almost out (which proved accurate). It took 2 staff nurses, a back-up charge RN and the Clinical Coordinator to wrestle an a box and a half of various masks from central supply, because "masks are being very tightly controlled." We ended up sending out staff throughout the night on scrounging missions to dig up more to make it through the shift and give the oncoming day people some wiggle room.
Now granted, there could be some sort of mask shortage I am unaware of. But honesly, the situation is getting flat out disturbing. Especially since everything seems to be set policy. Is anyone else experiencing anything like this? Do my collegues and I have any avenue to express our concerns (the "J" acronym has been mentioned)? Should we start a fund to buy our own supplies? Or should we just take a collective chill pill and get over it?