The other day at work (hospital), management came through and took EVERY BOX of masks off the floor! I asked if I could keep a few masks for my shift as one of my patients wasn’t A&O and kept hacking in my face during peri care, med pass, etc. so I’ve been wearing a mask In the room and she said no! Only for CONFIRMED droplet protection patients. ?
I don’t know about you guys, but sometimes if a patient is sneezing and coughing I will wear a mask when I go in the room. ?♀️
Ridiculous! As if only people with known confirmed iso issues are an issue. Someone can have a garden variety cold, but do we want that transmitted to other staff or patients?
What about protecting the patients from sick nurses? At my job, anyone who doesn't get the flu shot (for any reason) MUST wear a mask for the entirety of flu season. When I had a cold, I wore a mask. TBH, my cough lingered for several weeks after I was no longer sick. Even when it was just an occasional cough, I wore a mask anytime I was doing anything where I wouldn't be able to easily cover my cough. For example, putting in a foley - yeah I wore a mask so I wouldn't get a tickle in my throat and contaminate my sterile field.
And the idea of wearing the same mask for the whole shift or putting the mask in a labeled baggie and re-wearing it? What idiots are working in their infection control department? Once you've worn it into an isolation room, it's contaminated. Who in their right minds thinks it's a good idea for me to get flu droplets all over my mask, and then wear the same mask into the room of a patient on protective neutropenic precautions?
Yeah, we've talked about this pretty extensively on the "Supply Shortages" forum, but the absolute dumbest part to me is that the CDC and WHO don't even recommend surgical masks as protection for the general public. When people steal those masks, they gain zero protection, but make it so that healthcare workers can't do our jobs. It makes my blood boil.
And to think just washing their hands would do more to help. Ignorance and panic I guess.?
So why not just keep them in the stock room, for heaven's sake? Most places I've worked, the stock room is only accessible with a code anyway.
Lots of places where employees pass on the codes or passwords for convenience.
Same for keys. There are keys, and then there keys ... like master keys, and extra keys and extra keys. Anybody who works LTC knows the SIZE and weight of the keyrings we had to pass on to the next shift.
'Wanna take any guesses what boxes of masks might be fetching for folk who provides them to desparate parties?? Kinda like street value for narcs and clean syringes.
HC facilities have to safeguard those masks as needed for absolute staff use and dispense judiciously.
Just curious - anybody with expertise to check out if any poss "sales'" appearing YET on social media sites?
Jory, seems you just can't buy them from some 'usual' places. A news snippet yesterday commented that places like some Walmarts and Amazons don't have any avail. (Kind of like the empty shelves before big storms. The buying public just become nervous.)
As for stealing, yes. The same reason wanting to either make an illegal profit, or to save them up for one's own use (or for their fams).
Also becoming scarce are hand sanitizers, wipes, some chlorox/Lysol stuff, like sprays.
Specializes in Community Health, Med/Surg, ICU Stepdown.
My hospital is doing this too =( We get one box of droplet masks unlocked and we have to call the supervisor when we are running low. N95 masks are locked up and only distributed to those specifically taking care of patients on airborne precautions. They said it is because staff and visitors have been stealing masks and there is a shortage.
We have had a few positive coronavirus cases (not a HIPAA violation, our hospital has been on the news, and no patient names released). One question they are discussing is if a coronavirus patient becomes unstable quickly or codes, does the RRT/code team still take the time to put on all the PPE?
It would definitely delay the code but the alternative is possibly spreading the virus. Right now those taking care of the corona patients wear paper scrubs under the PPE instead of their own scrubs, so I guess they could just put a mask on, run in, then discard the paper scrubs before touching anything else...?
Libra - you bring up an interesting dilemma. Please keep us updated if your facility comes up with something. I think many of us would be interested, even those of us retired ones.
Specializes in Community Health, Med/Surg, ICU Stepdown.
14 minutes ago, amoLucia said:
Libra - you bring up an interesting dilemma. Please keep us updated if your facility comes up with something. I think many of us would be interested, even those of us retired ones.
I will! So far we have a few staff that are the only ones caring for the coronavirus patients to minimize exposure. There is one nurse who stays in the anteroom and supervises the donning, doffing and hand washing of anyone who enters the room. He or she also gets supplies and hands them to the staff in the room so minimize the amount of donning and doffing and the amount of PPE used.
Most masks are made in China, and since much of China is on lockdown factory workers can't go to work. So fewer masks are being made, China needs their own masks so fewer are exported, and the demand here is high. Our administrators are worried about a critical shortage and that we may run out, then it will be hard to accept more rule out coronavirus patients... I hope it doesn't get to that point!
Libra - TY for the comeback. I fear that things may get worse before it gets better. I hope as more ACCURATE info becomes avail, the panic/ hysteria will calm down. I think it's the unknown (rumors?) that's adding to the creeping worries. Ebola, SARS, H1N1, HIV all come to mind.
I read the School Nurses are starting to feel it from the parents and teaching staff. And I'm sure NH families and staff are on alert as well.
That's crazy because if a patient is suspected of having coronavirus & tested for it, it has to be mailed off to one of the centers that can test it & that takes up to 48 hrs. By that time, a lot of nurses will be infected. No wonder people are calling off!
DeeAngel
830 Posts
Call your local news media and tip them off.