SURVEY: Nurses, Are You Prepared for an Encounter with COVID-19?

[tnbutterfly - Mary]

We first started hearing about the Novel Coronavirus in December 2019. It made the news due to the rapid increase in the numbers of individuals in China who became infected with this new disease. As the deadly virus began to spread, affecting those around the globe, including those in the United States, it has become very obvious that controlling the spread of this virus is going to be a very serious challenge. Since it is a new disease, no one has immunity and there is currently no vaccine available.

On March 11, the COVID-19 outbreak was characterized by the World Health Organization as a Pandemic. As such, it is critical that all members of the health care teams have the appropriate knowledge, training, and personal protective equipment to effectively and safely provide care to patients, without unprotected exposure to themselves.

As a potential first responder to fight this virus, have you received the training needed to assess and care for potential and confirmed COVID-19 patients in your place of work? Do you have adequate equipment? Does your place of employment have a clear and up-to-date protocol for responding to COVID-19? Or are communications confusing or even nonexistent?

Do you feel prepared?

Please take this survey so we can see how nurses from around the globe feel regarding the level of preparedness to fight and stop the spread of this threat to public health. After taking the survey, please return here and share what preparations and precautions your healthcare facility and you personally are taking. We would love to hear from you.

Direct link to survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/CT77WW7

CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19): We Want to Hear from You

[NormaSaline]

"The stimulus bill proposed by Democrats would require employers to protect nurses, doctors, orderlies and other hospital employees from occupational exposure to the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19. Democrats say they want hospitals to be legally required to follow something similar to the CDC guidelines on preventing the transmission of infectious diseases developed after the SARS outbreak in 2003."

The AHA is calling (or was - I do not know the status) Democrats to get this killed. Can allnurses please provide updates on these things that are important to nurses?????

https://www.rollcall.com/2020/03/13/hospitals-want-to-kill-a-policy-shielding-nurses-from-covid-19-because-there-arent-enough-masks/

[tnbutterfly - Mary, BSN]

9 hours ago, juan de la cruz said:

Mary, those questions are hard to answer with a plan yes or no or maybe, LOL!

Am I prepared to care for a COVID19 patient? yes and we have taken care of them...are we prepared for an onslaught of severe cases of COVID19? that will be a huge strain on any hospital if that were to happen. As it is, there is only a finite number of ventilators and ICU rooms that are equipped for those requiring intubation and mechanical ventilation. Our current number of confirmed and PUI's have not gone to a point where supplies are running low, not yet, and I hope that it never reaches that point.

As a healthcare professional and ICU provider, I am concerned about getting this virus in the course of my work and infecting my loved ones at home who have risk factors for developing the severe disease.

Juan, I agree that the survey questions are more than a Yes/No answer. That's why I asked readers to come back here to discuss in greater detail. And I am glad so many are doing so. All responses, here and in the survey will be taken into account when sharing the survey results.

So....Keep talking nurses!!!

[NurseBlaq]

Outside of nursing, I don't feel safe in public because my children and I are all high risks. I have heart disease and we all have asthma. Not to mention our allergies have flared up due to all weather and rain and now this. People in public don't cover their mouths when coughing/sneezing and supplies and groceries are low due to panic buying. As nurses we care for patients but people often forget nurses have to care for themselves and their families as well. Plus I live in an area with small community hospitals who are already overburdened and short staffed. Unless we have a medical appointment, we're hunkering down at home for our own well being.

[NormaSaline]

44 minutes ago, NurseBlaq said:

Unless we have a medical appointment, we're hunkering down at home for our own well being.

That sounds like the best plan right now. I'm doing a lot of video watching (on Covid) and among the best ideas I've heard is, yes, take it day by day, but what we are doing now is geared toward a better outlook 6 months from now. I'm not expressing that well, but without feeling a sense of overwhelm, if possible, we need to be thinking / planning for six months from now.

One of the questions I have is to what extent should I be helping folks outside of work? I'm conflicted about that.

[toomuchbaloney]

21 minutes ago, NormaSaline said:

That sounds like the best plan right now. I'm doing a lot of video watching (on Covid) and among the best ideas I've heard is, yes, take it day by day, but what we are doing now is geared toward a better outlook 6 months from now. I'm not expressing that well, but without feeling a sense of overwhelm, if possible, we need to be thinking / planning for six months from now.

One of the questions I have is to what extent should I be helping folks outside of work? I'm conflicted about that.

In our small city and surrounding remote and rural communities we are trying, as citizens, to identify the isolated elders and those at increased risk so that we can assist them with basic needs while they shelter in place. Alaska does NOT have the hospital or professional capacity to accommodate lots and lots of sick people. facebook helps, but Internet service is not a given up here.

[JadedCPN, BSN, RN]

On 3/15/2020 at 12:29 PM, Godislove2020 said:

I think the media is exaggerating the who thing. the best place to look for up to date news is cdc

Normally I would agree that the media is exaggerating but the CDC recommendations seem to back up the "exaggeration" of the media. And yet people still aren't taking the recommendations seriously.

[HandsOffMySteth]

16 hours ago, juan de la cruz said:

Mary, those questions are hard to answer with a plan yes or no or maybe, LOL!

Am I prepared to care for a COVID19 patient? yes and we have taken care of them...are we prepared for an onslaught of severe cases of COVID19? that will be a huge strain on any hospital if that were to happen. As it is, there is only a finite number of ventilators and ICU rooms that are equipped for those requiring intubation and mechanical ventilation. Our current number of confirmed and PUI's have not gone to a point where supplies are running low, not yet, and I hope that it never reaches that point.

As a healthcare professional and ICU provider, I am concerned about getting this virus in the course of my work and infecting my loved ones at home who have risk factors for developing the severe disease.

One concern I have is that the media may panic people with misinformation. This could cause people who think they have it but do not to flood hospitals and put an extra burden on the system. It may be prudent to set an isolated area away from other departments to screen those who think they are infected.

[toomuchbaloney]

56 minutes ago, juniper222 said:

One concern I have is that the media may panic people with misinformation. This could cause people who think they have it but do not to flood hospitals and put an extra burden on the system. It may be prudent to set an isolated area away from other departments to screen those who think they are infected.

The largest purveyors of misinformation have been the president and other politicians. Hands down.

[NormaSaline]

1 hour ago, juniper222 said:

One concern I have is that the media may panic people with misinformation. This could cause people who think they have it but do not to flood hospitals and put an extra burden on the system. It may be prudent to set an isolated area away from other departments to screen those who think they are infected.

This is what a lot of hospitals are now doing, in an effort to keep people out of the ED.

[NurseBlaq]

I don't know who this is but I love this lady's sarcasm! ?

https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video/1237889477630210048/pu/vid/476x270/kaVQbIzYczjAz8EH.mp4?tag=10

[HandsOffMySteth]

10 hours ago, NurseBlaq said:

Outside of nursing, I don't feel safe in public because my children and I are all high risks. I have heart disease and we all have asthma. Not to mention our allergies have flared up due to all weather and rain and now this. People in public don't cover their mouths when coughing/sneezing and supplies and groceries are low due to panic buying. As nurses we care for patients but people often forget nurses have to care for themselves and their families as well. Plus I live in an area with small community hospitals who are already overburdened and short staffed. Unless we have a medical appointment, we're hunkering down at home for our own well being.

Well said. I think people's reactions to the virus may even be worse than the virus in some cases.

[Corey Narry, MSN, RN, NP]

23 hours ago, juniper222 said:

One concern I have is that the media may panic people with misinformation. This could cause people who think they have it but do not to flood hospitals and put an extra burden on the system. It may be prudent to set an isolated area away from other departments to screen those who think they are infected.

I think the public should be aware of the symptoms but I also think healthcare workers should be able to screen. I don't think it's necessarily wrong for the public to seek care if they're worried. That's what we're here for, to screen and test if we have a suspicion. There have been admissions for severe ICU cases where the individual did not seek care for 2 weeks and God knows who else they exposed.