artsynurse

Hi, everyone -- I work in elective surgery (not a frontline nurse) and I was laid off d/t COVID-19 in mid-March, with the promise of being hired back. I've been in contact with my manager recently and it is expected that I return to work next week (great, right?!) However, I'm hesitant... I was told we are going to be testing patients. It seems that there is no solid plan as to where they will be testing patients (indoors? outdoors? in the waiting room?), when they will be testing patients (patients typically come to the office numerous times before surgery, but they're only being tested a few days prior to procedure), the building has poor ventilation, and I made the mistake about asking about PPE... sounds like we're expected to be OK with just surgical masks and a face shield when testing patients. It seems like I received a bit of pushback when I asked about N95's or something that filters a bit better than your typical surgical mask. I did a bit of research on the OSHA website and here's what I found: Source: https://www.osha.gov/SLTC/covid-19/healthcare-workers.html Basically, I want to know if any other nurses are in this situation. Are your jobs not supplying proper PPE? Are you expected to just be happy you have a job to return to, grin and bear it? I love my job and I want to return, but I'm super cautious about this... I have some underlying conditions that could cause greater-than-average health risks to me if infected, and of course I'm not trying to hurt my husband, parents, in-laws, etc. Help!

I'm in a similar situation - plastic surgery nurse here. Just got the OK yesterday to return to work next week. Not sure where you're situated, but I'm just outside of NYC and elective surgery is permitted now, per the governor. Feeling a bit uneasy myself, as we're going to be COVID testing in our facility a few days preop, and I had to push for our facility to get proper PPE for that, like N95's (not sure if we'll be getting it, but as of right now, we're set up to just wear surgical masks with a face shield). I'm contemplating returning to the job for other reasons and searching for another job, but I spoke with a nurse friend who cautioned me in searching for jobs in other specialties right now such as in SNF's and other long term care facilites, as it's difficult in this geographical area to work in safe conditions. Enarra (previous poster) has a point about a familiar place being better than a new place, in terms of coming in contact with the virus - you can somewhat control the small area that you work in. If you return to work, make sure your administrators allow you enough time to disinfect the room in between clients and put PPE on your clients as well. Good luck to you and stay safe!