spit hoods/ spit socks in hospital

Specialties Psychiatric

Published

Do any of your hospitals allow use of spit hoods for spitters? my psych hospital doesn't allow us to use face shield, regular hospital mask, or ANYTHING on spitters even when spitting blood. of course staff can use protective face shields but often we have a patient in a cpi hold and may get spit on for a couple of minutes before someone brings face shields to the incident. The administration says its unsafe to cover patients mouth in any manner, but staff think we should be protected from body fluids. please comment where you work if your workplace allows spit hoods or masks on patients as we are negotiating with management at this time and want to show them that other facilities do use spit hoods safely. thank you in advance

25 year psych nurse , 5 to go!

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The facility I work for does not allow anything to be placed directly over clients' faces, for obvious safety reasons. In a situation in which staff are holding down/restraining a client who is spitting, a staff member is allowed to hold a towel in the air over the client's face (not touching the client's face at all, with at least several inches of clearance) in order to block the spitting.

What on earth is a "spit sock"?

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We have spit hoods. We use them during situations requiring restraints (for spitters) but once the patient has been medicated and restrained they're removed for patient safety. They are never left on under any circumstance and only used when in close proximity during acute situations.

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Specializes in Psych ICU, addictions.

We use ones similar to that as well.

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