The hospital I work for has not fit tested RN’s much less provided staff with the necessary N95 masks and PPE/goggles to protect RN’s working frontline in ER For OB patients. We live in an area with positive Coronavirus cases. When I wore my own N95 mask on today, 3/17/2020, and another RN wore her own goggles, we were told we were not allowed to wear them and to remove them. The CDC clearly states that hospitals have the responsibility to protect RNS appropriately. Help!!! Any advice appreciated. The N95’s have been ordered for staff per management, however we are all smart enough to know we need to wear them NOW: and that they are on BACK ORDER.
Texas hospitals are required in state hospital licensing standards to develop procedures for the appropriate provision of personal protective equipment for staff, including nurses. Texas hospitals are also required to have all-hazard disaster preparedness policies and procedures for workplace safety. Unfortunately, neither the Texas Legislature or the Texas hospital licensing agency have made personal protection for staff during epidemics or pandemics a priority as they have done for HIV/AIDS, chemical hazards and influenza.
Just today, Professor James Tabery of the Univ. of Utah School of Medicine Program in Medical Ethics and Humanities commented on the ethical dilemma facing health care workers when the hospital does not provide them with personal protective equipment or a safe workplace. Prof. Tabery stated that the COVID-19 pandemic involves competing obligations for health care workers (HCWs). HCWs have an obligation to work when they are staffed for a shift or are called. However, HCWs have their own interests in not wanting to become sick, which can cause them not to be able to, or inclined, to work. He said that their is an ethical consensus that HCWs have an overriding duty to work because of everything that has been invested in them, and because of their unique position where not just anybody can replace them.
Society looks to HCWs to perform their functions because they went into the health professions and are expected to go to work. HOWEVER, Prof. Tabery states the obligation of HCWs to show up to jobs is not absolute: "If hospitals don't have personal protective equipment, they are in no position to tell their staff to show up and work. If a hospital cannot provide even a basic level of safety for their employees to do their job, then they are turning their hospital not into a place to treat patients--they are turning it into a hub to exacerbate the problem."
I recommend that you complain to the Texas Health and Human Services Commission and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services immediately to require the hospital to immediately provide you PPE. Stay safe and healthy the best you can.
