Part of a series: COVID-19 — Nurses’ Notes from the Front Line

by Laura Malatesta, RN

Two months ago, my unit was turned into our hospital’s Covid-19 unit. Our management, in order to limit contact with these highly contagious patients and to save PPE, has instructed us to try to limit each patient to five points of contact per 12-hour shift. Of course, that’s impossible with confused, usually incontinent patients, most of whom also need to be fed and encouraged to drink.

When I brought this up with our manager, she indicated we could fudge a little and go into the room a little more often, but it seemed we were often short of the isolation gowns we needed in order to do this. So, it’s no wonder that my upset elderly patient was able to reach under both my masks — my N-95 and my surgical mask — and was able to grab my face, probably resulting in the hefty case of Covid-19 that left me in bed for over two weeks. Read more at medium.com...