What is it like in your hospital right now?

Nurses COVID

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I'm PRN and have been on call because of low census. I know we have COVID and r/o COVID patients; I'm actually "assigned" to the COVID floor, but because of my status + elective surgeries canceled + people avoiding the hospital, our census is low.

I wonder what it will look like a week or 2 from now.

In the Denver Metro area for reference!

I m PACU for the hospital and an Np student so when all the surgeries were cancelled my hospital said we would all be absorbed on other units. They are refusing to mark the patients that are Suspected covid, probably because they can’t and won’t provide PPE.
I have opted to take no pay days and instead doing telemedicine for my NP clinical site.

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On 3/25/2020 at 8:49 PM, PeachyERNurse said:

Is anyone else’s facility refusing to allow staff to wear masks (including plain old surgical masks) unless they’re caring directly for a COVID-19+ patient?

Yes.

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Specializes in ICU/ER/trauma.

Funny what real life is like vs what the media reporting on.

every media story has full hazmat suits. All kinds of PPE. Projecting thats the entire nation. Not saying there aren’t places overrun or discounting those situations. But majority seems to be slow/lay-off/staff cuts. what’s really goin on is empty hospitals with no PPE. BUT MAN HOW BOUT THE EMAIL TRAFFIC?!?! unsure how the servers are holding up.

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So after reading all these post's, it seems to me that the hospitals are turning your lives into a Stephen King book. Like The Stand. Or the Fog. What a lesson for the nurses to learn. You may not be your hospitals hero's, but you are each others hero's. Stay safe.

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7 hours ago, waufah said:

This exact mentality is will be the death of us. This is a pandemic,with no vaccine. The media is not making baseless claims, we are not prepared,we dont have enough PPE ,ventilators or staff to deal with the worst of it. According to research 6% of the population will need ventilation,in America that is 20million,do a Google search of how many are available in the country then maybe you will understand how bad things are. There is not enough research to be conclusive how long the virus stays on the surface. The people buying masks are smart actually,they are taking the necessary preacautions.

there can be nuclear war after the economy crashes, which is most likely and don't forget hurricane season...which I"m sure will really spread Covid-19. Probably a lot of category 5 storms.

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I will say this. After reading these posts I feel less alone. Yes I work with nurses but I don’t dare say my innermost thoughts.... (all of you do and I get the warm and fuzzies)...
Same situations are happening everywhere, so everyone please be as safe as you can, always using your best judgment! You’re not always going to have the right answer because as we are witnessing in 2020 nursing does indeed change, but it’s the compassion in our hearts that should remain the same.

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I’m in Phoenix. It has been very very slow all over the valley with low census’. Before this I was racking up mad amounts of overtime, now people are being called off for low census. We will see what happens in the coming weeks

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Specializes in M/S,ER,OR.

Small town hospital in SE Oklahoma with no ICU, only have two vents....

No confirmed covid-19 cases still, everyone is staying away from the hospital. ER is staying empty, about 10patients on the 24 bed medsurg floor, hopefully this is not the calm before the storm bc if so our hospital cannot handle it. We have no negative pressure rooms, we do have 35days worth of PPE.

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Specializes in M/S,ER,OR.
On 3/25/2020 at 7:49 PM, PeachyERNurse said:

Is anyone else’s facility refusing to allow staff to wear masks (including plain old surgical masks) unless they’re caring directly for a COVID-19+ patient?

Same here. Our hospital is not allowing us to wear plain, hand sewn, or n95 masks out and about. It feels like your being stripped of what protection you feel you have....

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I am also PRN float in ICU, we have been put on standby alos due to low census. Honestly I am relieved to be off. I believe in weeks things are going to be crazy. Hopefully by then they have the proper PPE protocol in order. Most of all hopefully they have the PPE we need. Like when was it OK to reuse N95 masks?

We have been allowed to wear mask as long as we bring them from home, the house made ones, We can not use them in patients room.

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We are able to use face mask only if we bring them from home, like self made mask. We cant wear them in patients room.

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1 minute ago, Cferrer01 said:

We are able to use face mask only if we bring them from home, like self made mask. We cant wear them in patients room.

What good are they if you can’t wear them in the patient’s room?

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