PPE During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Part 1

Part 1 of 2:

Let me preface this by saying that no one is perfect, nor do I claim to be. I made a mistake two nights ago that I’m hoping to turn into a teachable moment for many of you. As a nurse, I always go above and beyond to make sure my patients and the patients of other nurses are safe and well cared for. We had an unstable patient who had already coded in the ER prior to arriving to our unit. My patients were finally stable enough so that I could assist when they coded again on our floor. As I ran over, I noticed that compressions were being administered intermittently. I grabbed my mask (N95 – rumors flew that this patient was a possible COVID-19 patient) and ran inside without thinking, grabbed gloves and took over CONTINUOUS compressions for two rounds.

We got the patient’s pulse back with just enough time for me to look up and see that I was the only thing blue in a sea of yellow That was when I realized I had been on top of this patient’s bed (no stool) with their bloody chest rubbing against my scrubs, having been 1-2 ft away from their face. This is where that lesson I mentioned comes into place…

To be continued in Part 2/2