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I hear horror stories about hospitals without protective gear and thought I would share a better story. What we are going through at my hospital is peanuts compared to others. I feel fortunate and mostly safe. So here goes...
When we arrive in the morning we have our temperature taken and we are asked about symptoms. If we show any signs of illness, we are sent home. No testing, just home with a number to call for instructions.
We have Covid and rule-out patients on my floor, Covid patients in the ICU and of course in the ED. I have been assigned to the Covid patients since we segregated the floor. I think it has been two weeks but I have lost track of time. We are assigned 2 patients to start
because we have to do all the care ourselves, no tech. I feel lucky that we have the staff available and that our management supports us. During the day we might get a third patient. One day I got a fourth but that only happened once.
So in the morning we are given our mask(s) for the day. If we have a patient on a non-rebreather we get an N-95 with a surgical mask to give over it. We have a plastic face shield over that. The process for going into a room is this:
Hand sanitizer, gown and gloves. N-95, surgical mask, face shield. Remove gloves, hand sanitizer, new gloves. Then in we go to do whatever needs to be done. Coming out, gown and gloves off from the front only. Hand sanitizer, new gloves, face shield off and cleaned
with hospital-grade wipes. It goes into it's own paper bag. Then masks off by the ties and into their own paper bags. Then wash hands. If we are going from one room to the next, we still have to go through all the steps because the masks aren't clean so we can't
put a gown over it or we will contaminate the inside of the gown.
We have a lit of nursing home patients who aren't safe to get out of bed on their own but they are in rooms with glass fronts so we can see them when they start to get up and as quickly as possible gown up
We have a lit of nursing home patients who aren't safe to get out of bed on their own but they are in rooms with glass fronts so we can see them when they start to get up and as quickly as possible gown up
to get to them before they get too far.
Our CNO frequently makes rounds to check on us and to give us the latest updates. The managers are taking shifts so that there is someone available all the time, instead of just the weekdays from 8-6 like before.
Someone had the brilliant idea to write inspiring messages on the walls of the entry way so we see them when we come in the morning and at the end if the day. I hope they leave them up forever because they are awesome.
Like I said, we are extremely fortunate in our hospital. I know this is only the beginning and it will get so much worse, but I feel lucky to be in such a great place.
