SURVEY: Nurses, Are You Prepared for an Encounter with COVID-19?
The Coronavirus/COVID-19 has become a rapidly evolving health threat to individuals and communities around the globe. Nurses are in a position to help stop the spread of this disease if they have up-to-date training, knowledge, and protection.
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.
Specializes in NICU, PICU, Transport, L&D, Hospice.
24 minutes ago, juan de la cruz said:
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.
In fact, because there are millions of Americans with no health insurance and no personal health provider relationship and no ability to pay the highest prices in the world for testing or care, this country will see millions get ill and spread the disease without ever interacting with the system. That's especially true because widespread testing is not our standard, even this late in the game. It's a recipe for public health disaster.
Specializes in ACNP-BC, Adult Critical Care, Cardiology.
On 3/17/2020 at 4:02 PM, toomuchbaloney said:
In fact, because there are millions of Americans with no health insurance and no personal health provider relationship and no ability to pay the highest prices in the world for testing or care, this country will see millions get ill and spread the disease without ever interacting with the system. That's especially true because widespread testing is not our standard, even this late in the game. It's a recipe for public health disaster.
I agree...I can't even begin to tell you the public health issue this can bring. Poverty and lack of access has always been independent predictors of poor health outcomes and we will see this with COVID-19.
First and foremost, Congress needs to address the current shortage to protect the conditions of RNs and patients, but we also need to request a General Accountability Office (GAO) study to review the actions of all applicable federal agencies to identify root causes of these systemic failures. Finally, a study of the supply chain of PPE needs to be thoroughly studied both in the United States and worldwide to prevent future avoidable shortages.
I'm in between jobs right now so no worries on that front. I'm just thankful that I was able to complete my last assignment, which required me to visit snf's across the state, before this virus reared it's ugly head. I pray that my family will make it through unscathed(as does everyone); otherwise, God's in His heaven, all's right with the world!
In addition to lack of access to care for the reasons previously stated in this thread, there are those of us who are skeptical about even trying to seek care due to the tail chasing, hemming and hawing, lack of a sense of urgency regarding our health complaints, or just plain lack of shall we say “astute competence” we encounter when doing so in regular circumstances. It is quite a shame, I think, when a consultation with Dr. Google yields consistent better results than with so-called specialists in their field.
I'm wondering if they have any recommendations for nurses who are over 60 regarding caring for these patients. So far I haven't heard anything. I'm 62 and pretty healthy and I drew blood on a pt for a nurse who couldn't get it who was a rule out coronavirus. I wasn't concerned about it, but I do wonder about this.
Specializes in ACNP-BC, Adult Critical Care, Cardiology.
26 minutes ago, old&improved said:
I'm wondering if they have any recommendations for nurses who are over 60 regarding caring for these patients. So far I haven't heard anything. I'm 62 and pretty healthy and I drew blood on a pt for a nurse who couldn't get it who was a rule out coronavirus. I wasn't concerned about it, but I do wonder about this.
I don't know of any personally. In our ICU COVID 19 patients we've had intensivists and nurses over 60 in the room performing high risk care including prone positioning in an intubated patient. Recommended PPE's were donned by all involved.
First and foremost, Congress needs to address the current shortage to protect the conditions of RNs and patients, but we also need to request a General Accountability Office (GAO) study to review the actions of all applicable federal agencies to identify root causes of these systemic failures. Finally, a study of the supply chain of PPE needs to be thoroughly studied both in the United States and worldwide to prevent future avoidable shortages.
I am a prospective nursing student. I’m still waiting to receive my acceptance letter. It’s going on three weeks late now and I understand but I would think my school would want to get the ball rolling on our education but instead they are all “working from home”. With no email about anything.
On 3/19/2020 at 11:22 PM, Cactuslover said:
I am a prospective nursing student. I’m still waiting to receive my acceptance letter. It’s going on three weeks late now and I understand but I would think my school would want to get the ball rolling on our education but instead they are all “working from home”. With no email about anything.
I’ve also heard of schools cancelling nursing students clinical rotations that are in their final semester. I find that absurd. You guys need help and they need to be prepared for real life situations as an RN.
I don't know of any personally. In our ICU COVID 19 patients we've had intensivists and nurses over 60 in the room performing high risk care including prone positioning in an intubated patient. Recommended PPE's were donned by all involved.
What the "recommended PPE" is seems to be what's not consistently understood.
Perhaps this is the moment when people realize that business and government are two different entities with different goals and objectives and relationships to capital. Business uses people to make and consolidate money. Government uses money to protect and benefit the people.
This is highlighted in today's crisis. The POTUS thinks and acts with a business sensibility. He believed that he could fire pandemic planning experts and then simply rehire them in a crisis and everything would be fine... clearly it doesn't work that way and delay is critical.
We see that same mentality in other business models which have bare bones disaster planning in place because that costs money. If health businesses don't have necessary PPE for a health crisis, it's because they didn't see having that stockpile as an important part of the role in such a situation. How silly that hospitals, clinics, and nursing facilities find themselves without basic supplies now after the first cases were reported last year. That deficit is not the fault of "panic buying" on the community...it's the fault of poor planning for anticipated events.
We are out of PPE, masks, etc. because everything in this country is out sourced to China to use their slave labor. Our “POTUS” is the only one who has tried to bring manufacturing back to this country.
Specializes in OR, Nursing Professional Development.
On 3/19/2020 at 11:22 PM, Cactuslover said:
I would think my school would want to get the ball rolling on our education but instead they are all “working from home”. With no email about anything
Most likely your school is busy trying to figure out how they’re going to get the current students what they need. There is a limited number of clinical spots- you can’t send more students than there are spots. They need to figure out how to proceed with the present before they can consider the future right now.
On 3/19/2020 at 11:22 PM, Cactuslover said:
You guys need help and they need to be prepared for real life situations as an RN.
Students aren’t help- please get that idea out of your head. Precepting takes a lot of energy and nurses are stretched to the breaking point without having to slow down to give students extra time to complete what they can do in half the time. PPE is in short supply- students make that shortage worse by using supplies. As for preparing for real life situations, you learn to become a nurse when you have that license in hand and are in orientation, not when you are a student.
toomuchbaloney
16,065 Posts
In fact, because there are millions of Americans with no health insurance and no personal health provider relationship and no ability to pay the highest prices in the world for testing or care, this country will see millions get ill and spread the disease without ever interacting with the system. That's especially true because widespread testing is not our standard, even this late in the game. It's a recipe for public health disaster.