They locked up all the masks in security ?

cubby777 · Mar 4, 2020

2 hours ago, LibraNurse27 said:
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!

Seems like the person sitting in the anteroom would really risk getting infected.

Wuzzie · Mar 4, 2020

Apparently grocery stores are now putting limits on things like OTC cold medicines and disinfectants. There was a news item today that mentioned Kroger is limiting customers to 5 items. Not sure if that's 5 of one item or 5 total.

allnurses Guide · Mar 4, 2020

I am wondering the efficacy of just going back to cloth masks that get washed like the linens do. Seems more environmentally friendly. Not sure about the "ew" factor of that, but if compared to not having a mask at all, it would surely be preferable.

Wuzzie · Mar 4, 2020

Just now, Nurse SMS said:
I am wondering the efficacy of just going back to cloth masks that get washed like the linens do. Seems more environmentally friendly. Not sure about the "ew" factor of that, but if compared to not having a mask at all, it would surely be preferable.

The cloth masks while environmentally friendly and cost-effective would unfortunately be ineffective protection. Even N-95's are not 100% effective.?

allnurses Guide · Mar 4, 2020

Just now, Wuzzie said:
The cloth masks while environmentally friendly and cost-effective would unfortunately be ineffective protection. Even N-95's are not 100% effective.?

Against the virus, definitely. I was actually thinking about all the other things we use them for - sterile dressing changes, wound care, etc.

Wuzzie · Mar 4, 2020

9 minutes ago, Nurse SMS said:
Against the virus, definitely. I was actually thinking about all the other things we use them for - sterile dressing changes, wound care, etc.

Ohhhhh! Gotcha. Well, now that makes sense. ?

Hani, BSN, RN, EMT-I · Mar 4, 2020

I work in the county public health building and people come in all day asking for boxes of masks. As if we are just handing them out. We will offer them one mask but that's not what they really want.

I can't imagine them being locked up from nurses' access, that's incredible. I hope they can figure out a better system.

NurseSpeedy, ADN, LPN, RN · Mar 5, 2020

On 3/2/2020 at 11:58 AM, RegisterednurseRIRN said:
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. ?‍♀️
Anyone else have the same thing going on?

Okay, so I’m a bit of a smart ***. I would print out a pamphlet about universal precautions and body fluids and then ask if she was still going to hoard the PPE. If so, I’m not accepting an assignment. Then again, I live in an area where I could find another job within hours

P_B_Q · Mar 5, 2020

Got an email today that stated N95 will be kept in main supply and only given out with permission from infection control or nursing supervisor. It also said that the ED has received training and continues to get more for the potential influx. Problem is that so many of the patient that have precautions don't get appropriately transported from ED to the floor going to. As a nurse on the stepdown/teley unit we get the respiratory people that need extra monitoring. The number of times a patient is transfered and I don't realize they need precautions is to often. It is lax in these protocols that spread stuff. :( And the ED is out first screening location. It gets frustrating.

LibraNurse27, BSN, RN · Mar 5, 2020

17 hours ago, cubby777 said:
Seems like the person sitting in the anteroom would really risk getting infected.

Good point. I'll have to ask how they protect this person since I haven't worked with any virus patients yet. In our training we learned it's still not certain whether the virus is spread through droplet or airborne and if contact precautions are also necessary, and how many feet the virus can travel, and how long it stays on surfaces. We will have updates from the public health department as more information becomes available. If anyone has answers please post!

MunoRN, RN · Mar 5, 2020

1 hour ago, LibraNurse27 said:
Good point. I'll have to ask how they protect this person since I haven't worked with any virus patients yet. In our training we learned it's still not certain whether the virus is spread through droplet or airborne and if contact precautions are also necessary, and how many feet the virus can travel, and how long it stays on surfaces. We will have updates from the public health department as more information becomes available. If anyone has answers please post!

There's no good evidence that COVID-19, or any coronavirus for that matter, spreads through true airborne transmission, it appears to spread primarily through droplet transmission, about 6 feet from the source. Once it lands on a surface though it can remain viable for anywhere from a few days to weeks, depending on how hospitable the surface and environment is to the virus.

Out of an abundance of caution, the CDC recommended airborne precautions in addition to the more appropriate droplet precautions, which in my view was stupid, sometimes less is more. My facility has only two critical care airborne isolation rooms, and since the CDC recommendation is basically Airborne-or-nothing we've been only putting our two sickest coronavirus rule out precautions in airborne isolation, the others are taken off isolation all together, which means we've got patients whom I'm sure at least some of which do actually have coronavirus who are on no isolation precautions at all.

ArmaniX, MSN, APRN · Mar 5, 2020

I felt it was part of Standard Precautions to wear face/eye/gown protection when there is the possibility of getting splashed with a substance while at work (ie: emptying foley, cleaning up liquid stool that is running down the bed and towards to nurses station, wound care, draining any drain).

I would argue this to be a safety issue.