PPE Conservation/Clustering care in ED

[GS ED RN, MSN, RN]

Hello- I work as an ED nurse in an inner city trauma center. The PPE situation recently improved (thank God) however our gowns are crap. They suck and rip as you doff. Anyways - does anyone else get extremely frustrated when providers keep piling on orders like 10-20 mins apart or the care plan drastically changes and they fail to communicate to that.

disclaimer- donning/doffing for ongoing pt assessments, re-assessments and answering call-lights is necessary and NOT the problem I am venting about.

Example: the provider sees the patient makes their assessment - writes their orders - I go in ready to do it ALL at the same time in the interest of clustering care -- I usually pop by provider desk and say "Hey I am going in to the room is there ANYTHING else you would like"... I also usually offer my suggestions at this time -- despite my efforts to keep open lines of communication this does not work----5-10 mins after I complete the tasks and leave the pt's room and completely doff they think of something else - now I have to don again, go through yet another gown and re-risk exposure as I doff again. unfortunatelt it happens quite consistently with certain providers... it is incredibly frustrating!! with our shortage of PPE it INFURIATES me. These providers go in the room ONCE, MAYBE twice. The techs arent going in the rooms at all - (I dont mind doing all my own VS/EKGs and toileting - not my point) but WHY does the nurse take ALL the risk and ALL the exposure - some providers DONT EVEN go in the room they call the patient then proceed to bark orders at the nurses - oh I didn't know you could assess a pt via telephone - or listen to lungs/heart via the phone. Pre-COVID I dont mind going into the patients room 20x/hour no big deal!! I am many things but lazy isn't one of them ... I understand COVID is HARD for ALL of us, all disciplines not just nursing - just doesn't seem fair? thoughts? thank you.

sincerely,

a frustrated ED RN.