They locked up all the masks in security ?

[RegisteredNurseReneeRN]

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?

[LPN Retired, LPN]

I don't think they know everything about this virus right now. They say you don't need a mask,if you're not sick . I've read and seen people on tv spraying and wiping down surfaces, so they are thinking you get it by touching surfaces contaminated with it . and it also seems that every other day or so two or three people pop up with it in a new state. If they cant really figure out the mode of transmission we are in trouble. Just seems all very confusing to me .

[amoLucia]

Obviously healthcare workers are the ones being most slammed and put between a rock & a hard place re care for these pts. And it is all so non-definitive. Too much confusion and lack of credible info..

PPs cubby & Libra nurse comment re the 'monitors' is becoming quite apropos considering as I believe that an airport monitor has become involved specifically for poss exp monitoring.

For those of us who have been around a while, I remember the hysteria that was rampant when AIDS/HIV became the scourge of the 1980's. Pts and others were ostracized and some HC employees quit their jobs. The early public reax was horrendous.

[T-Bird78]

Every office in my healthcare facility is required to have a fully-stocked flu station in the waiting room. It’s got hand sanitizer, Kleenex, and masks, and all pts with a cough and/or fever are supposed to wear a mask. These are present every day and have been for years. We got an email from corporate that pts are grabbing handfuls of masks on their way out; some even come in and grab them without an appointment. We are to keep the masks behind the front desk and our front desk staff is to hand out a mask to pts who are coughing. Because of pt theft we’re having to violate our own protocol. Having them locked in security is a bit much though!

[skylark, BSN, RN]

Masks are locked away here, (although I see managers wearing them if they have to walk through a clinical area!), and we can only apply to get a mask once a patient tests positive for corona.

Given that there is a shortage of tests, and therefore a delay, this whole mess is crazy. We can look after a sick patients for days, pending a test, and the whole time we go home on the train or bus, stopping at the store on the way.

[Quota, BSN, RN]

I work on an oncology floor and previously all our neutropenic pts had their own box of masks either in their rooms or just outside their rooms. With the mask shortage all masks have been moved to the controlled access supply room. Yesterday I couldn’t find any masks for a neutropenic pt looking to walk some laps anywhere. I asked our unit secretary to order some more masks and when she called they said our clinical director had to request them.

On further follow up with my director all masks are in a secured room in the hospital and only something like 5 people know where that is. She has to make the requests for more masks and they will only send 6 boxes at a time. She is supposed to keep those extra boxes in her locked office. Her plan was to make ziplock bags with 5-10 masks each to place in our neutropenic pt rooms to replace as needed and have one open box in the supply room for staff. This is new so we’ll have to see how this works out. Being an oncology floor we very rarely have anyone on droplet precautions, generally of anyone comes positive for anything requiring droplet precautions they get transferred off our unit.

[Walti, LPN, LVN, RN, EMT-I]

Interesting on the neutropenic patients and I would concur on absolutely imperative to have masks for their care.

We hear that the general public has no need for N95 masks but what would you recommend to your outpatient chemo patient who needs to be in public for shopping?

How about your 70 year old with COPD? It seems to me that some of the public should also be appropriately masked for their protection.

I wonder how many feel the CDC is doing an adequate job of keeping the public informed?

[skylark, BSN, RN]

Those are interesting point, Walti.

I wonder if it would be possible to make N95s a prescription item, for those who clearly need them?

[amoLucia]

skylark - very interesting idea. Except what would happen if the script couldn't be filled anyway r/t the scarcity? I've freq had delays on reorders of my meds due to UNavailability (mfr backlog).

Good idea though.

[Walti, LPN, LVN, RN, EMT-I]

On the comments about those stealing masks for resale. Check out the prices on eBay. N95 masks as low as 99 cents with shipping anywhere fro $15.00 to $20.00 dollars each. Should cost about $3.00 or so. Sellers pockets the leftover fees as handling costs. In fairness, the masks I've seen are the N95s sold in Home Depot and other such stores.

[Wizard 1]

Sellers on eBay are making out like bandits from all this. Not only masks but hand sanitizer are marked way, way up there. Amazon was, at least a week ago, trying to pull down listings that were price gouging. Supposedly eBay was taking some down as well (as of last night).

Pretty crazy that nurses have to beg for basic proper protection in a fair amount of places. The way this virus acts, and the shortage of tests, dictates that protection should be the rule, not the exception, if they truly want to contain coronavirus. Not to mention, if they don't care for the nurses, who will care for the patients?

[emergenceRN17, ASN, BSN, RN]

We have maybe a two week supply left. We have tried every avenue to no avail. Patients were walking into empty operatories and stealing masks. Dentistry is considered elective and we are the low man on the totem pole when it comes to masks. If the situation does not improve we will end up closing our private practice for a bit as the student clinic takes priority. It’s a very real and scary situation.

[cazzyprenurse, CNA]

This seems a bit off. Maybe they misinterpreted the recommendations. It may be helpful to everyone if you can escalate it. The purpose of the CDC recommending that PPE be conserved (e.g. not worn by a well person to prevent becoming ill when going to the grocery store) is so that the PPE is available to front line healthcare workers like yourself who need it. It’s appropriate for you to use PPE when caring for someone who is actively sneezing or coughing. You’re not just protecting yourself against flu or SARS, it could just be the common cold...