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!

What do folks think about the idea of physically housing/treating Covid pts in a different building not just a different unit or floor, with their own dedicated staff and equipment - and setting up testing sites outside of those locations? Hospitals are actually the last place where Covid and non Covid are allowed to mingle, at least initially.

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1 hour ago, NormaSaline said:

What do folks think about the idea of physically housing/treating Covid pts in a different building not just a different unit or floor, with their own dedicated staff and equipment - and setting up testing sites outside of those locations? Hospitals are actually the last place where Covid and non Covid are allowed to mingle, at least initially.

The idea is good, but the logistics would be incredibly difficult, especially given how many logistical problems we're already dealing with.

Either way, if indeed the virus is truly droplet, quarantine units should be sufficient assuming the staff for each shift are dedicated to that unit and not mingling with non-quarantined units.

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I am in the Bay Area in CA. Our census has been eerily low in the ER. Hopefully the early "stay at home" has prevented a high transmission of the virus at this time. It has given us time to prepare for an onslaught of patients. We have seen many Covid patients and our ICU had been full of them in the past two weeks. The ICU has had to "prone" them manually because we have no beds that have the capability. One pt. in his 40s was transferred to a facility that had such a bed. Apparently ECMO is not available for Covid patients. Still, we are low on N-95 masks. We are using PAPRS or a N-95 with a full face shield to conserve. We have had no +Covid among the staff yet and some of us, including me, were quarantined when the first pt. came in with symptoms to the ER. He was the first in our county. We were not wearing protection at that time, the pt. was given a mask. I am 65, my co-workers protect me by telling me to stay away from the rooms with the + patients. I came into this profession with the HIV/AIDS crisis and going out with the COVID crisis. Hopefully, not literally going out due to the disease.

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13 hours ago, brap740 said:

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.

No kidding. I know there are a few hospitals world wide that are getting slammed, but obviously this not the norm.
The thing is though, we're already having enough trouble getting people to take this seriously, so if they did come out and say "oh hey, hospitals are low census and calling off nurses" so many more people would totally blow off any warning to stay inside.

I keep hearing that our "surge" is expected around April 3, in the area I work, so I'm reserving any judgement until after then.

This whole situation is just a catch 22 on so many levels.

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Census has been low, but is ramping up. COVID-19 (both + and r/o) are taking over the hospital, one floor at a time. Everything that can be cancelled has been (cause of low census). Emergency surgeries only. Rehab (physical) has been shut down, and the oncology patients moved there (it's in a relatively isolated area of the hospital). In addition to the regular ICU, we have a COVID ICU erected in one of the areas vacated by surgery. I am not sure what the stats are for admissions, confirmed +, and deaths. I know there have been multiple deaths, and that some of the COVID infections are nosocomial. We mostly hear about the cases through the grapevine rather than regularly updated official channels.

Nursing education is running classes to semi-prepare us to float up, should the need arise. Step-down and Progressive Care nurses will float to ICU/COVID ICU, and med-surg will float to SDU and PCU. OR nurses will assist in COVID ICU, especially because they're really good at proning. Some RNs will be brought out of non-bedside positions to backfill med-surg positions, if it comes to that.

We have PPE, but it's being rationed/conserved. Staff has temperature checks when entering the building. No visitors for almost two weeks. When the policy first went into effect, there were exceptions, such as for CMO patients (we had family come in to view the body when a patient deteriorated overnight and died at AM change of shift), but I'm not sure if there are exceptions made now. No visitors for COVID patients, including those dying. Families have been able to FaceTime. Apparently, one family member tried to charge into the room, and was physically restrained by an attending until security could arrive.

We are getting patients both from the community here and as transfers from NY. It's currently manageable, but all bets are off when the surge hits. And it will hit. Right now the mood is very tense.

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18 hours ago, Rogue1 said:

I'm at am urban WI hospital, same story as a lot I see here: in prep we currently have a low census, lots of staff cancellation, and an eerie 'calm before the storm' vibe.

I'd like to be a fly on the wall for all the telemedicine appointments they must be doing to keep patients at home--I'd love to see exactly how well it really works. Is this going to be the way we do it from here on out? Also wondering if there's going to be a huge wave of all those non-urgent cases playing catch up after this whole C19 thing slows down (whenever that is). Unusual times.

Yes, there absolutely will be a huge wave in the future.

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On 3/25/2020 at 6:49 AM, T-Bird78 said:

I’m not in a hospital but in an office that is part of a healthcare system that does have several hospitals, urgent care, long-term care, hospice, physician offices, and surgical centers in 10 counties in my area. Our practice has 3 locations, 4 physicians, and front desk/clinical staff in each location. We’ve closed one location indefinitely and only have one physician in the other two locations at a time; the other 2 docs are “work from home”. We’ve cancelled all elective surgeries. The physicians reviewed the schedule and we’re only seeing urgent pts and new pts must be approved by a physician. The few pts we do see are scheduled at least an hour apart so we can clean the exam room and waiting room completely between each pt, and so we don’t have a full waiting room with 15 people at a time. We’ve gone from seeing 40-50 pts a day down to 2-3 depending on the physician. The docs are doing telephone visits for follow ups/CT reviews, etc. We’re looking at starting video visits next week. The drive to work has been a breeze though! The two LPNs in our practice are on standby to help with other practices or in the hospital if needed. I admit, I feel useless when there are so many in our local hospitals (almost all of our hospitals have at least one case of COVID-19) that are being run ragged.

Yes, hopefully we learn from this pandemic. Our clinics should be turned into public health pandemic clinics (PHPCs) like they have in Asia to offload the demand for the ERs. I see videos of non-critical patients in hospital beds, not even on O2! We can start an IV in the clinic if you need fluids!

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21 hours ago, Joan said:

I'm PRN and I'm called off all the time. Apparently it's not as bad as the media claims and besides COVID-19 can stay on surfaces for 19 days so it's rediculous everybody is buying out masks and gloves. Almost comical.

Just wait. Most of us are behind WA, NY, Detroit and Chicago. All it takes is one little cluster in your community.

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Specializes in Oncology, Post-Anesthesia Care, Resource Pool.

With elective surgeries discontinued, I found out last week on Friday I was going onto night shift PCU indefinitely. I have no control over my schedule, I'm told a couple days prior to the following week what nights I'm working. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad to have a job, but I'm upset they didn't feel the need to discuss any of this with me prior. Today they worded it as a question as to whether I could work certain days next week, when I said I couldn't work one of the days, I was told the CNO states I have to cover those exact days, or I can basically kick rocks.

N95 masks are being reused indefinitely. Since I worked PACU I hadn't been sized, so I was given a one size fits all mask. We aren't sanitizing them. The plan is to throw them in a paper bag, and put them somewhere safe so we can use them again during the next shift.

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Specializes in Orthopedics, Pediatrics.
On 3/25/2020 at 3:39 PM, pastudent said:

In South Carolina - we are waiting for the storm.

I'm wondering if any hospitals/ units are cohorting staff. Right now we are over staffed - as positive cases start to come in the chance of staff getting sick will increase. If one gets sick, our co workers may fall ill. It seems like it would be a good idea for us to divide into teams - so that we won't all be mingling together. Thoughts anyone?

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Specializes in Orthopedics, Pediatrics.

Travel nurse in South Georgia. I was concerned when I saw that staffing has been moving nurses all over the hospital. Our hospital has three large units that are rule out or confirmed Covid. I thought it would be more sensible to try to keep staff from mingling all over, but I floated to 5 different areas over a 10 day period. And yes, we have a lot of confirmed cases, several deaths and a lot of patients I am concerned won’t make it.

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Specializes in PCU Neuro/Cardiac.
On 3/26/2020 at 10:46 PM, morningland said:

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

Yes I’m in the west valley and I too was racking up mad amounts of overtime..would not have signed an extension if I knew low census was coming

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