Louisiana nurses face a tough choice between personal protection and coronavirus patient care. Coronavirus

For Louisiana nurses at the forefront of the coronavirus pandemic, the most dangerous moment of the shift for patients ranked as the largest in the U.S. is when patients “ code ” or lose heartbeat It happens when you start.

Nurses are facing a difficult choice now, with the lack of personal protective equipment affecting most hospitals in southern Louisiana. Hunting for protective clothing such as the N95 mask, or hurrying to save the patient to the brink of cardiac arrest.

An ER nurse at the University Medical Center said, “ If you can’t get and grab PPE at this time, you may delay patient care or put yourself at risk. ” I am. New Orleans.

Nurses who treat patients with coronavirus in hospitals and clinics say they feel they are increasingly vulnerable to the ability of the virus to spread rapidly in hospitals. Nurses who lack protective equipment and repeatedly reuse N95 masks and gowns for days rather than hours can pick up infections from patients and spread the virus to other patients at the hospital or take them home and take them home. States that he is worried about returning to his family.

“Hospitals are rapidly being transferred by infected patients and are learning that hospitals may be the primary carriers of COVID-19, as they facilitate the transmission of uninfected patients.” New England Medical Journal Report from a doctor in Italy, the epicenter of the pandemic worldwide. “Patients are also transported by our local system and contribute to the spread of the disease, as ambulances and personnel rapidly become vectors, and healthcare workers are asymptomatic carriers or Illness without surveillance. Some, including young people, can die, which increases stress on frontline people. “

last week, Health professionals in southern Louisiana Began ringing the alarm bell in an interview with The Times-Picayune. Proponents of lack of protective equipment amid a surge of new coronavirus cases in the area. Nurses and doctors talking to reporters have done so, provided that newspapers do not publish their names, because they are prohibited by hospital policy from publicly speaking about their experiences is. The reporter has taken steps to confirm the identity.

In the past week, the number of confirmed cases in Louisiana has increased by 334%, with 3,315 cases reported as of Saturday. Between Tuesday and Saturday, the number of patients requiring hospitalization has increased from 271 to 927, and the number of patients who need to be on ventilators has skyrocketed. So far, Orleans Parish has the highest per capita mortality rate for coronavirus cases in any US county.

Now, nurses have said that while some supplies were in the newspaper, they were not enough to protect themselves from all patients still in need of help. And their concern about spreading the disease is growing.

One New Orleans ER nurse with a child at home described an elaborate routine that he still feared was inadequate.

When he returns home from work, he strips to a boxer outside the house, throws his scrub into a washing machine with a safe bleach of color, and then takes a hot shower. As long as he and his colleagues were asymptomatic, they could continue to work, and he used the same N95 mask for two weeks.

He believes it is likely to spread the virus, and said that the idea of ​​infecting others would “eat me alive.”

“Who’s to blame if they get sick? Mine,” he said. “That’s what I don’t want to live with. It provokes fear.”

Local hospitals say that in the face of a nationwide shortage of protective equipment, various measures have been taken to protect employees and patients. Many are “cohorting”, separating patients with coronavirus or its symptoms from other patient populations. They have restricted or terminated unnecessary visits to the hospital grounds. They also say they are searching for the height of the mask.

LCMC Health, the regional chain that runs UMC, commended Governor John Bell Edwards on Thursday for helping to supply 17 pallets, including N95 masks, surgical gowns and surgical masks. LCMC did not respond to questions about this story about the risk that hospital personnel would spread the infection.

Still, the shortage continues, and the problem is spreading throughout the state.

Shreveport’s legal nurse consultant, Sherry Hebert, spoke to two nurses threatened to be fired and raised concerns about working in the coronavirus department without sufficient PPE. Said to the Nursing Committee.

“They bully nurses and treat them ruthlessly,” said Hebert, who works for lawyer Diakosmitis. “They are threatening their work. If they do not go to the COVID-19 unit to the nurses, they will not be rehired and will be reported to the State Nursing Commission if they are fired . “

A person at the Ochsner Health System said on Friday that it was following the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines for PPE storage and tracking and tracking employees who had come into contact with coronavirus patients. When you warn an employee that he may have been exposed, he is instructed to monitor his symptoms.

Ochsner said on Wednesday that 300 employees were quarantined for a potential coronavirus, but about 50 staff members tested positive. Authorities have said they are bringing nurses from other areas and relocating nurses from clinics and elsewhere to address the shortage.

When asked about the risk of spreading infections to hospital employees, Dr. Sandra Kemmerly, Ochsner’s Medical Director for Hospital Quality, said a similar danger outside the hospital during a pandemic-grocery stores, pharmacies, etc. Pointed out that it exists. She said Ochsner is using telemedicine and other remote communication options to reduce the inadvertent role of transmission.

A general official at Baton Rouge also stated that the exposed hospital staff adhered to CDC guidelines that would allow them to wear a mask at all times and continue working as long as there were no symptoms.

However, UMC nurses said these guidelines have evolved due to lack of equipment.

“All the standards have gone out of the window,” she said.

For some nurses who have worked with coronavirus patients in intensive care units, concerns about protecting themselves have discharged them.

One of the nurses in the New Orleans area said she had self-quarantine at home with dizziness and headache because she also had a fever. She is still waiting for the results of the coronavirus test, but she believes she has found an infection at the hospital. Nurses recently offered to resign because of concerns about the workplace situation.

She stated that increasing nurse gowns could cause errors because of the risk of contamination if rushing gowns off and on and equipment is reused.

“I’m really guilty that I have to leave,” she said. “I love being a nurse, but I’m not affected by this in the long term.”

Registered nurses at North Shore hospitals state that staff are given primarily “level 3” masks. This is one step below the N95 mask recommended for healthcare workers who come into contact with coronavirus, tuberculosis, and other infectious diseases.

Staff there are only intended to use N95 masks for coronavirus patients who have severe symptoms or require intubation, and hospital staff will receive an email at the end of the shift instructing them to return their masks.

“Most of the hospitals are understaffed and I don’t know what the hospital will be,” said a nurse. “It’s certainly not a good thing to have a big spike that a patient gets sick at one time. Many nurses want to go out, especially without the equipment to protect us. Let’s do it. “

Others said that the hospital seemed more concerned about making up for labor shortages than employee health.

“If exposed and asymptomatic, you can go home the next day,” said a nurse in the UMC emergency room. “They want a warm body. An asymptomatic warm licensed body.”