The unglamorous side of PPE
Kristina Stiles RN MSc ???? ????
Nurse | Client Liaison Manager | Ambassador
The current conditions in our healthcare require the critical care staff to wear personal protective equipment inside the #covid19 areas. This often involves water repellent gowns or overalls, head cover or hat, facemask, face shield and double set of vinyl gloves.
If you ever wondered what it's like to work twelve hours in ICU covered from head to toe in plastic - I'm about to explain to you the unglamorous part of my job.
One of the key pieces of my protective equipment and one I had to take 3 fit tests for before I achieved safe and appropriate fit, is my FFP3 mask. This tight-fitting respirator is an occlusive facemask that sits on the bridge of my nose, covers my mouth, cupping under my chin. There's a flexible hard panel, which I compress and shape over my nose and cheeks to create as tight a seal as I'm able. Mouth breathing appears to be the only option for the duration of my shift if I apply this effectively. It always gets a few head turns from my colleagues in the donning zone when I attempt to immitate Darth Vader by high pressure breathing to test the seal. The double elastic straps, which make sure that the mask is secure on my head, cause progressive pressure over my ears and temples, and leave me with a lasting crushing headache. The arms of my glasses are further embedded into my scalp by multiple bands of elastic holding the face mask and face shield flush to my face, but these stay on for the duration of the shift, removed only for comfort and meal breaks away from the unit. I have a circular patch of dry, flaky skin over the space where my mask sits and my lips are sore and have begun to crack. Both the mask and the face shield create marked indentations to my forehead, nose and cheeks, which stay with me on my journey home - a temporary visible difference of my own. I'm not convinced whether these are something I should be ashamed or proud of?
Facial PPE makes it hard to hear and nearly impossible to make yourself understood to patients and colleagues, with a nagging worry in the back of my head that any proper jaw movement or enunciation may cause a break in the seal. It shouldn't, but I can't help thinking about it. Any condensation that appears on the clear face shield in front of my eyes causes the same anxiety-filled response - am I still safe?
The PPE can be claustrophobic and it gets very hot. I end up with pools of sweat inside my overalls' sleeves. When I doff my kit on the way out of the unit my scrubs look like someone had deliberately hosed me down - the midriff, the back, the legs of my uniform are discoloured with sweat and are soaking wet.
Careful donning and doffing takes attention, patience and time, so any comfort and meal breaks are meticulously planned and executed with military style precision. At the start of one of my shifts, a team leader made a request in the donning area that I would associate with a parent instructing their child before a long journey: "Make sure you've eaten, drunk and been to the toilet!" Nutritional and fluid intake needs to be carefully balanced between a state of hypoglycaemia and dehydration against frequency of toilet breaks required as a consequence. Yes, I checked, apparently I qualify as a grown up.
My hands endure the most severe punishment of being encased inside plastic for over 12 hours at a time. I have to permanently keep one set of gloves on throughout my shift and treat this primary layer as my hands - I wash them, dry them and put on alcohol gel, applying the second set of gloves to attend to my patient. By the end of the shift, my hands are swollen and macerated with moisture and the insides of the gloves I remove are drenched.
This is critical care nursing during the COVID-19 pandemic. The unglamorous version.
To the many of my wonderful colleagues in the #NHS #family, who are working in a naturally physically and mentally exhausting critical care environment under the additional physical and mental strain of wearing PPE - you are all rockstars, superheroes and angels!
#ourmarvellousteams #lovemyjob #criticalcare #baccnstaffmoves
Nurse | Client Liaison Manager | Ambassador
9 个月The release of Dr Rachel Clarke's #BREATHTAKING dramatisation on ITV has made me go back over my posts from the start of #covid19, my redeployment and life during the #lockdown and #pandemic. There is so much here that I have closed away, so many experiences and memories I have still not dealt with. Re-reading my notes has brought back so many recollections of the horror of living and working through this time as a healthcare professional. It also reminded me of the grace and overwhelming kindness of many friends and strangers during this time. I haven't been brave enough to watch #BREATHTAKING yet, because just seeing the headline is snatching me back in time to a place I am not sure I will ever be ready to revisit. Seeing my posts helps me to acknowledge that I was here, doing my bit and kept going with the irreplaceable and immense love, camaraderie and care from my family and colleagues. #lovemyjob #nursing Sophie Blakemore RCNi :: Nursing Standard
Safety & Health Activist | Innovator | Investigator
4 年Don’t Worry Too Much ~ Lyin’ BoJo will make sure you’re all really well looked after when this pandemic and incompetence-inflicted debacle has all gone away. It’s a certainty the days are gone where the Tories clap ?? & cheer ?? enthusiastically when they’ve just defeated a commons motion to give the Nurses and NHS colleagues a decent pay rise. I’d also expect all the Tory MPs sitting on the boards of private medical insurers, big pharmaceuticals and for-profit health service providers will have resigned their non-exec directorships and lobbying activity - AND - no Tory or sitting MP has any shares or financial interests in these type of companies ~ that would just be crass hypocrisy..???? It’s a certainty that every Tory MP and Minister is working as hard as ‘NHS and Care Sector front liners’ to repatriate all the off-shored cash in tax havens to help pay for your PPE and the insulting ￡60k offered to your dead ?? colleagues families. The nation clapping ?? for you NHS + carers + essential + key workers - that’s miles better than a proper pay rise | decent pensions | decent employment rights | zero harassment/bullying for speaking out about incompetence. Yep - Lyin’ BoZo has got you well and truly covered..????