I'm a senior nursing student and this debate arose with a couple of my classmates and me. I work as an ER tech and they work as patient care techs on the floor. As of right now, CDC guidelines state for PPE:
Quote
Updated PPE recommendations for the care of patients with known or suspected COVID-19:
Based on local and regional situational analysis of PPE supplies, facemasks are an acceptable alternative when the supply chain of respirators cannot meet the demand. During this time, available respirators should be prioritized for procedures that are likely to generate respiratory aerosols, which would pose the highest exposure risk to HCP.
Facemasks protect the wearer from splashes and sprays.
Respirators, which filter inspired air, offer respiratory protection.
When the supply chain is restored, facilities with a respiratory protection program should return to use of respirators for patients with known or suspected COVID-19. Facilities that do not currently have a respiratory protection program, but care for patients infected with pathogens for which a respirator is recommended, should implement a respiratory protection program.
Eye protection, gown, and gloves continue to be recommended
So basically CDC is saying wear an N95 if you have it, but if you don't, wear a surgical mask until you can get an N95.
So if you have a suspected or confirmed COVID-19 patient, and all you have is a surgical mask and no N95, can you refuse to take care of that patient? Do you face any legal repercussions or potential fallout from your employer if you do refuse? Asking not only about tech positions, but RN positions as well.
The older nurses who complain all the time are actually keeping quiet now cause the charge nurses arent giving them Covid patients...LOL
Really, because they are more at risk? Evidently they don't work at my hospital, we ALL take the covid patients. The older nurses are more experienced.
Specializes in ICU/ER/Med-Surg/Case Management/Manageme.
On 3/28/2020 at 3:20 PM, irvine123 said:
The older nurses who complain all the time are actually keeping quiet now cause the charge nurses arent giving them Covid patients...LOL
I greatly resent these types of comments. I'm one of the oldest nurses here. Me and several of my "older nurse" friends have volunteered for the Texas Disaster Volunteer Registry. I received notification yesterday of a potential assignment in South Texas needing staffing for a 30+ bed Covid-19 med surg unit. I'm not accepting that assignment due to the distance; however, an "older" friend of mine has accepted. I can assure you if my services are requested closer to home, I will go. And like the other poster said, we older nurses have experience it's going to take some of you many years to get. When I was a younger nurse, I relied on the older nurses for information, guidance, wisdom.
Be careful with your ageist comments. It's not a good look.
Specializes in Critical Care and Community Health. Dabbled in Cor.
I’m constantly recruited to do hazard pay and I am 62. I’m on the disaster registry. I can work circles around.... I know a 72 year old charge nurse who can too
Specializes in ICU/ER/Med-Surg/Case Management/Manageme.
1 minute ago, BeenThereGoingThere said:
I’m constantly recruited to do hazard pay and I am 62. I’m on the disaster registry. I can work circles around.... I know a 72 year old charge nurse who can too
You go girl! I'm soon to be 71 and don't have the energy or knowledge to handle the ICU/ER patients as I did way back but I can certainly hold my own out on the floor. There's a place for all of us and one day people like Irvine 23 will know that.
In the meantime I salute those of us who've been in the trenches for many years.
Indirectly , hospitals following CDC protocols are saying " don't use N95 unless you need to " which is not applicable since anyone can be a carrier. I mean , being at work during this crisis is already heartbreaking thinking of our families we go home too and worries for us. Then , an initiative we take to protect ourselves because of limited resources is unacceptable.
What the Oregon BON seems to be saying is that because the OHA Public Health Division PPE recommendations are "scientific and evidence based", this is what nurses are going to be held to in terms of limiting their ability to advocate for their own safety.
What the OHA says is that procedure masks are fine when caring for COVID patients and that the appropriate level of protection (PAPR, N95 or better) is only needed during Aerosol Generating Procedures because that's the only time aerosolized droplet nuclei occur.
The claim that close range aerosolized droplet virus transmission doesn't occur with a cough or sneeze is not only not scientific or evidence based, it's the most ignorant statement I've ever heard by a health related entity or individual. And I'm not being hyperbolic, I really can't think of any statement more asinine than that.
This would be the SAME WHO that SAT ON THEIR HANDS for weeks, waiting to declare a world wide pandemic....IDIOTS!
They are weaseling around the wording to give cover to all the hospitals that will be defending lawsuits from injured nurses after the dust settles on this.
Specializes in Psych, Addictions, SOL (Student of Life).
1 hour ago, 11blade said:
What state would that be? Order me to go to work? Please provide some reference for this claim.
The only way the state can order someone to work would be if there were a county-wide declaration of Martial Law. Don't see that happening anytime soon on the USA!
What state would that be? Order me to go to work? Please provide some reference for this claim.
I can't even ?♀️
No one is ordering me to do ****. They'll have to come to my house and drag me out of bed. Take my license? bahahahahaha. Local jurisdictions are still not arresting people for holding their large and annoying hillbilly barbeques. How's about the gov't put everyone on lockdown and start holding people accountable, then we can talk about whether I'm coming into work with COVID19 +ve patients and no PPE.
Seriously, @Jory You're telling me that wherever it is that you live, their strategy is to threaten a nurses' licensure for refusing unsafe work? How's the government going to do that when they're still negligent in controlling the populations' non-compliance. If it ever came to that, most of us will just start calling in "sick" for potential COVID19 symptoms or find another career. Threatening to take away anyone's ability to be at the bedside during these trying times is not a threat when most of us don't even want to be there (esp. with no PPE) in the first place. It's like threatening to put a child in the "thinking chair". Or, grounding them to their room full of gadgets and Netflix. It's hardly a punishment.
Innocent2021, ADN, BSN
32 Posts
Really, because they are more at risk? Evidently they don't work at my hospital, we ALL take the covid patients. The older nurses are more experienced.