Haven't been here in a while, but I need some advice. Covid has come to my little rural corner of the world. We're taking care of covid positive patients. I'm not afraid to take care of them. I've always figured I'd contract it eventually. However, my place of employment has issued a memo full of instructions and requirements to enter the Covid rooms. They've directed us what kind of masks to wear, and where to wear them. Eye protection the same. Detailed instructions on what to do and how to do it. The problem is they haven't supplied the PPE as directed in the memo. The way I interpret it is, they've covered their butts with the proper procedure, then I get to decide how I protect myself and those I care for. The last day I worked I didn't have an N95 mask, and threw a fit until I got "one" even though I'm supposed to have a different one for each covid room I enter.
I've been burned several times in my long nursing career, improvising when I found I simply couldn't do what I was told to do. Management can and does leave you hanging when you try to do your best with what you have.
I've read the horror stories about nurses in NY, and other hot spots, who weren't properly protected and what they had to do. I feel small complaining about my little problem, that's why I'm asking for advice.
When they tell me I have to have a new N95 mask for each Covid room, and only supply me with one, what do I do?
Specializes in ACNP-BC, Adult Critical Care, Cardiology.
5 hours ago, imintrouble said:
Funny you should post the above. We were threatened with our jobs for HIPAA violation if we told anybody how many or who the Covid patients were. It's obvious where the rooms are, when you look at the isolation signs. But it seemed pretty over the top to threaten staff on the unit, when they told each other.
I guess we're all just feeling our way through a situation we couldn't even imagine a year ago.
LOL, yes. I only work in the Critical Care areas and during the start of the pandemic when visitation wasn't restricted, we had some family members walk by COVID 19 patient rooms with the glass sliding door plastered with a "Novel Respiratory Isolation" sign and I can tell some were starting to freak out that their family member's room is next to those. By the time visitation was restricted, I think many family members realize the extent of the pandemic. It was tough for some patients to have to zoom with their loved ones but I have to say, it made it easier for us to do our jobs without visitors around. We're now allowing family members to come visit again but limited hours and only one person at a time exception being end of life patients.
Specializes in Critical Care; Cardiac; Professional Development.
On 10/16/2020 at 3:09 PM, gettingbsn2msn said:
My RN son is leaving nursing after spending $$$ on a BSN.
He worked in NYC metro at the beginning of the pandemic. He said he realized quickly that the hospitals could give a damn about him. They wore garbage bags over their scrubs and got one N95 mask for the shift.
They had to do their own respiratory therapy, phlebotomy, IV's and accompany their patients to other locales in the hospital.
I always worked in hospitals that had RT's (and I am in the southeast).
He is looking in to counseling as he is having flashbacks and nightmares over this. He said not worth the money.
He is going back to school for IT.
We have new grad nurses jumping ship left and right. Not just leaving the hospital - leaving the career all together.
In NYC it took nurses going to the media to get attention for lack of PPE for any change to happen. I would raise hell with management and administration and if they don’t come up with a solution make it as public as you can.
Specializes in Quality Control,Long Term Care, Psych, UM, CM.
I don't work with patients so I'm not too familiar with what goes on in hospitals/LTC, but you have to document and keep having fits to protect yourself, your family and the patients. Like someone else said, go to the media if you have to. This is disgusting how hospitals act at a time like this. Just be careful, in my area, a nurse was fired from the local hospital because he went to the local paper about not having proper PPE. Then the hospital said he was fired because of discipline issues, but he never had any write ups (he's an acquaintance of mine so I know he's not a behavior problem). If there's a way to get other nurses/techs/anyone on your side, that's better than it just being you.
I'm so happy I don't work with patients or do bedside. It's so sad how hospitals don't care about staff and patients. It's also scary. My heart goes out to all of you that work in facilities. Stay safe out there. And get out of bedside if a chance comes along. You won't regret it.
We have new grad nurses jumping ship left and right. Not just leaving the hospital - leaving the career all together.
When you consider:
*The expectations: that we expose ourselves and our families on the regular to care for others...many of whom won't even wear a freaking mask to help reduce our exposure
*The lack of consistent PPE supplies in many facilities needed to safely provide the above mentioned care
*The fact that we are $-/# out of luck if OUR personal lives go sideways from personal/ family illness or childcare issues related to covid (FFCRA doesn't cover US)
*The self isolation many in our field subject themselves to during surges in order to protect those they care about...and the depression caused by said isolation.
...when you consider those things...
I'm honestly surprised more haven't bailed. I think about it often...and while I'm still in the game...I don't know how long I can keep it up...or if I want to. I resent the anti maskers, I resent admin/corporate, and I resent the fact that we're not important enough to get care and consideration if the $#@# hits the fan in our personal worlds. Still technically love my actual job...but am so very disillusioned that I don't know if I'll last. Only time will tell.
Specializes in ICU/community health/school nursing.
On 10/19/2020 at 8:27 AM, Nurse SMS said:
We have new grad nurses jumping ship left and right. Not just leaving the hospital - leaving the career all together.
In Texas our governor released any new grad who passed more than 50% of their clinicals. And they went to the ICUs. I had a crappy experience in an ICU without "enough" training a decade ago so I hope that most of those new nurses realized it wouldn't be like this always. But maybe they didn't....instant gratification and all.
OP my LVN sister is given one surgical mask to wear for the entire week of her shift at her ambulatory care clinic associated with the county hospital. I could buy a box of surgical masks on Amazon for $10 in August. There's no way this is about the continued supply chain issues. It's nuts.
Specializes in Oncology (Prior: Ortho-Neuro, Metabolic Surgery).
There is another thread in this forum that I think you'd be interested in titled Covid Precautions. Here's a snippet of my responses from that thread:
Quote
1) Do you wear N95s all day, outside of COVID+ rooms?
No, and we never have. Even when we had a COVID+ cohorted floor, they did not wear masks outside patient rooms. We still wear the same N95 until it falls apart. In July, we started using a dry cleaning process, but the mask must have 50 hours use before eligible for cleaning. We keep them in paper bags that we keep with us. I believe these policies are in still place as cost-cutting measures rather than due to actual shortage.
2) Is your hospital testing all patients, or only those who are symptomatic?
Only symptomatic and patients with elective surgeries. We've had multiple instances where a trauma patient came in and was later found to be COVID+. Most ED admits are not tested.
3) If you're wearing surgical masks, do you get a new one each day?
We wear a new surgical mask each day, and it is the same surgical mask for the entire day. That mask goes in and out of all patient rooms and all public areas of the hospital. We do not change the mask between isolation rooms unless the isolation is droplet or airborne. We get 1 new one at the start of the day and it must be given out by charge nurse on the assigned unit. We wear a cloth mask from entry into hospital until start of shift at our unit. All non-patient contact staff wear cloth masks the entire shift.
We used to wear the same paper surgical mask until they wore out, but now we have the luxury of wearing a new one each day. I agree that this is ridiculous and not likely to be the best infection control. A nurse I work with recently said it was a good thing that we don't have a shortage of mask and gowns anymore. I replied that I would believe we were out of shortage when we dispose of N95s after each time we enter a Covid/PUI room and rotate through surgical masks more rapidly as well.
Another thing that comes to mind is this may not be truly due to shortage either. My hospital is in dire straits as far as cash flow after the (lower than current) spike in April. I'm seeing some pretty unsafe practice being made standard in an effort to reduce costs.
No advice but that is just sad. Your facility had literally months to stockpile and get PPE and should have been prepared.
I live in hotspot Florida. We had our peak in the Summer and by then we were able to get PPE. Now that things have slowed down again, we're stockpiling yet again for the next wave and apparently have greater than a 45 day supply for the next wave. All we have to do is ask our central supply person for PPE and we get it, sometimes more than we ask for.
Shame on them. Good luck and great advice from others here.
Corey Narry, MSN, RN, NP
8 Articles; 4,475 Posts
LOL, yes. I only work in the Critical Care areas and during the start of the pandemic when visitation wasn't restricted, we had some family members walk by COVID 19 patient rooms with the glass sliding door plastered with a "Novel Respiratory Isolation" sign and I can tell some were starting to freak out that their family member's room is next to those. By the time visitation was restricted, I think many family members realize the extent of the pandemic. It was tough for some patients to have to zoom with their loved ones but I have to say, it made it easier for us to do our jobs without visitors around. We're now allowing family members to come visit again but limited hours and only one person at a time exception being end of life patients.