As an RN....I can tell you

[Horse with no Name]

There isn’t enough PPE to get through this.
It is dawning on me that people who became healthcare workers solely for the stability and benefits are going to reevaluate their life choices.
Are they going to be willing to get sick for their patients?
Nobody is going to help us.
While it is sweet that people are willing to sew homemade masks, those will not stave off this virus.
The CDC has become a joke telling us to use bandanas and employers and State Boards are going to rely on their recommendations to keep us safe.
In a few years, when chronic disease and death starts hitting the ones on the front lines, maybe then the same government who allowed us to get sick will appropriate some money to take care of us.
I wouldn’t hold my breath.
As for me, I will roll with the punches with the career choice that I made decades ago.
H1N1 put me on the sidelines for a couple of years but I did get back up again. I had zero support from my employer at that time.
I hope this one bypasses me but if it doesn’t?
I hope I do enough to make it worth it.

[still_one]

1. Please take care of yourself

[Haggis for Breakfast]

74. To ALL health care workers, first responders, paramedics, front-liners,

PLEASE TAKE CARE OF YOURSELVES. I PRAY FOR EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU. PLEASE BE SAFE. STAY SAFE. LET'S ALL GET THROUGH THIS WITH AS LITTLE LOSS AS POSSIBLE.

I LOVE YOU ALL.

[BamaRefugee]

2. THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE!

[paleotn]

70. +1000 This.

[lunasun]

3. Thank you and wishing you continued health . Very sad about support now AND then. Take care

[keithbvadu2]

4. +1

[AllyCat]

5. I'm horrified at what we are being asked to do.

I don’t know if I or my coworkers or my patients are going to come out on the other side of this.

[Horse with no Name]

6. Me too

I supervise a building that sees 600-700 patients a day.
We were allotted 10 gowns, 10 face shields and a box of N95 respirators. My employer is really good and they are trying but we are hamstrung.
We are all mostly terrified at what we know will be here next week.

[SunSeeker]

13. Thanks to the irresponsible actions of DeSantis letting spring breakers party away....

I fear Florida, with its 40% elderly population, in 2 weeks will be like Lombardi, Italy.

[AllyCat]

72. Suddenly, in the middle of my shift tonight, we err told to wear masks

Around our patients. Yay!

[eilen]

82. My employer

said that they are downgrading our precautions to the CDC guidelines:

airborne/N95+yellow gown/glove contact only if the patient is "aerosolizing" -- ie. nebulizer breathing treatments, suction, intubation, bipap, wet coughs/sneezes

droplet+contact (elastic earloop type mask + yellow gown + glove) for those who are not aerosolizing.

At least that is what I understood.

Which is bullshit. It is an equivocation. Because, remember folks, we had to wear the N95 when caring for patients with shingles -- who almost to a person never coughed even once. I asked about that and they claim that their precautions in the past were overboard, that they were so safety conscious to be ridculously overcautious. Really? Do you believe that a hospital would spend more money on disposable safety devices than they needed to? When our every morning huddle we were asked to explore ways to safe a fast buck in laundering expenses and then told to just change the sheets on the beds every other day unless visibly soiled? (change the odd rooms on odd days and the even room on even days?).

[backtoblue]

7. Affecting morticians, pathologists, and coroners too

Stay safe. We will get through this.

You are a hero.

[MontanaMama]

31. We buried my father in law yesterday.

The funeral home guy told us we couldn't stand in groups of more than 10 at the graveside service and could not use the hospitality room at the funeral home.

[deurbano]

40. I'm so sorry your loss... and to have it occur under these conditions.

My husband's longtime work colleague and friend just got diagnosed with a large ovarian tumor (which may or may not be a result of cancer), and they are trying to expedite the surgery but it seems it may happen right when the tsunami really hits here in the SF Bay Area. And then if she also needs chemo... These types of life events are already so painful and challenging under normal conditions.

[backtoblue]

61. I'm so sorry for your loss

[spanone]

8. K&R

From the son of an RN....

[GreenPartyVoter]

9. Thank you, and stay safe!

[Leghorn21]

10. You have already done "enough to make it worth it", no Name

Thank you for this post, and if it’s time for you to exit from the front lines, then that’s just how it’s going to be.

THANK YOU

RESPECT

[SunSeeker]

11. It's insane that the CDC told nurses to wear bandanas if out of face masks.

If I saw a nurse wearing a bandana, I would know my hospital is totally unsafe.

[Maru Kitteh]

16. Your hospital IS totally unsafe, as are everyone else's. That's where we are.

A bandana on someone's face is but one indicator of the problem, one that you can see. There are many more you cannot.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

24. Unsafe, but profitable (for the few, whom you'll never see at the hospitals they own)

[Marrah_Goodman]

12. Thank you for what you are doing

The lack of basic PPE for hospitals and other care facilities is a national disaster and is shameful. My daughter and granddaughter are CNAs. One at a Hospital and one at a nursing home. I am making them masks. They aren't N95 but at least they are something. Making extras for their co-workers. https://courierpressblogs.com/pdf/howtomakeafacemask.pdf

[Maru Kitteh]

14. We have no N95s. We have been issued a single face shield each that we must bag and reuse.

We are running out of cheap, paper masks. We can't get any bleach wipes.

Good luck to you and all of us out there doing this work.

[SunSeeker]

18. Looks like we're like India, where poor patients must show up with their own surgical supplies.

This is criminal.

[Horse with no Name]

36. I have never seen something to awful

And the fact that it is in slow motion makes it that much worse.
We’ve all run into emergency situations and grabbed what we could on the way in.
Thanks for your service my friend.
May we all make it out alive.

[58Sunliner]

42. If you have an Aramsco in your area go in and see if they have any N95's.

Tell them you are doing lead or mold abatement.

[IronLionZion]

15. Some countries have already drafted their retirees back into service

which is precarious since they're elderly and high risk. Any chance of pulling in the recently graduated new nurses who don't have the required experience yet?

I bet a lot of folks are wishing we made more healthcare supplies in the US instead of China.

[Doreen]

32. That is wrong.....just wrong.

[ismnotwasm]

17. I am a Med-Surg RN. I work with post transplant patients among others

I deal with hepatitis B, C, HIV, various flus, MDROs, MRSA, VRE, some weird no-name infection someone got from a black market kidney in another country, tuberculosis, a shit ton of fungal and mold infections, (including an absolute horror story from a Mucormycosis infection) aspergillosis.. I lost tract of all the infections that can kill people, given the right set of circumstances. I remember H1N1.

My unit does all the non ICU dialysis, including oncology, an entirely different way to care for people. Dire infections. Grft vs Host disease. Multi-organ failure. I am a trained dialysis RN.

Wound care from everything from poor vascularity, to infected abscesses, infected surgical wounds to Calciphylaxis. Mystery wounds.

I worn for a hospital that takes care of some of the sickest people in the country.

And now? We are locking up hand gel, and doling out masks. is it worth it? When I sometimes start my day with blood and shit and vomit?

I wouldn’t be who I am if it wasn’t. I don’t know about everybody, but I will be there when people are fragile, at their most vulnerable. I will cry with them. I will make them laugh. I will move in silence.

The fact that you are who you are, taking the time to write this, tells me you are the same.

[SunSeeker]

19. You are an angel.

[llmart]

23. +1000

You are truly a caring, dedicated soul.

Thank you for what you do on a daily basis.

[Horse with no Name]

38. Bless you for your service

I worked with transplant patients many years ago and sometimes saying it’s a shitshow is being nice.
Take care and stay safe through this.

[ismnotwasm]

52. You as well

[uponit7771]

64. Amen

[jmbar2]

20. Link to Slack site matching mask makers and medical recipients

This is a new SLACK site that is coordinating between people making masks, and those that need them. If citizen made masks will help, log on and let us know what you need.

https://app.slack.com/client/T010DLZTE00/C0100T9DX1Q



God bless you and thanks for all that you are doing.

[Ms. Toad]

39. I don't see a way to access this to volunteer. n/t

[jmbar2]

48. Try this

makemasks.slack.com

[Ms. Toad]

62. Still doesn't work

It requires an existing account OR an invitation from an (unnamed) administrator

[jmbar2]

63. Sorry, I'm not a Slack master yet

To join, you send an email to [e-mail], then they send you a link to get started. If you have never used Slack, you'll have to create an account. Then you're in. Welcome! Great group so far!

[bdamomma]

21. As a healthcare worker

myself, I have so much respect and admiration of what our Drs and nurses are doing on the front line. We have a despicable regime now.


Thank you is just not enough.

[cp]

22. Respect and gratitude

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[berksdem]

25. Thank you for all of your service!

I just received news that my wife may have been exposed at the hospital she works in. A PA was infected with the virus but at the time had no symptoms. Found out days later that another person the PA was in rounds with tested positive.

Scary times for everyone but the front-line workers are at risk while our gov't continues to botch this.

Stay safe!!

[Sloumeau]

26. I am disgusted that the Trump Admin is sitting on its ass instead of

doing all it can to build hospitals, stock them, and staff them.

If Trump were President in 1940, the Allies would have lost WWII.

[hunter]

78. Trump would have allied us with the Nazis to fight Japan...

... civilization would have ended in nuclear Armageddon and the few surviviors would be living in a radioactive 21st century Mad Max dystopia.

[Pachamama]

27. You and I have been on DU for 15 years now....

I hope and pray that 15 years from now we still are....

We have seen so much during this time, but nothing like this....

Please stay healthy and safe....

[alwaysinasnit]

28. FWIW. Thank you to you and all the frontline dedicated personnel who are making herculean efforts to

minimize the fallout from this pandemic. We don't know you but we can see your courage and dedication in action. I wish you and all our heroes good health.

[Mr.Bill]

29. My wife is retired from 40+ years in nursing.

Right now she is sitting at her sewing machine sewing masks. She is a quilter so we have tons of fabric. I will help her by doing the cutting.

[hamsterjill]

30. It's not right.

I know that is of little benefit but I’ll keep repeating it over and over.

Thank you for what you do. Thank you for your courage and for your honesty. I wish you protection and strength.

[Mr.Bill]

33. When my wife, a retired RN was still working

she was organizing to bring the California Nurses Association into the hospital she worked at. I got to meet the president of that union who was herself an RN. I asked her if the good pay and benefits would make her worry that the occupation would get over-occupied with people who were only in it for the money.

She said without hesitation, "Those people don't make it through nursing school."

25 years of being married to a nurse, having a daughter who is an RN, and six years of volunteering at the hospital myself tells me she was spot on with that answer.

[gibraltar72]

34. facts being facts, still

over a thousand retired healthcare worker came out of retirement to try to make things better.

[H2O Man]

35. Recommended.

Thinking of you, my Wonderful Sister.

[moreland01]

37. 3D Printed Masks

My husband is at our local community tool shop right now (he's the only one there) trying out a free crowd-sourced design for N95 masks on their 3D printers. If he can successfully 3D print a few, he's going to take them to the tool shop bosses to see if we can get a 24/7 operation going for our local hospitals/healthcare workers.

If you have access to 3D printers, here are the public domain designs . .

https://www.3dprintingmedia.network/copper3d-organizing-global-campaign-to-3d-print-antimicrobial-masks-on-a-global-scale/

The masks are Antiviral, Reusable, Modular, Washable, Recyclable, Low-Cost.

[Lars39]

47. Please make this an OP!!!

[Hekate]

69. Yes please, and report back! I've already passed this along to someone I know w a 3D printer!

[jmbar2]

60. Makemasks.com Slack group

Hi Moreland - great resource. I just crossposted your link at https://app.slack.com/client/T010DLZTE00/C010FEUCF0C/thread/C0100T9DX1Q-1584734802.047000

They are trying to help makers find each other and match to recipients. Come join in!

[0nirevets]

41. You are a legit hero, and all of those risking their life to help us all

My niece also is an RN, working in-home with elderly.

[Warpy]

43. I used to tell people I went into nursing

so that I could work nights in comfortable shoes. It really wasn't all that far from the truth, I'm a night owl and working during the day is pure torture and RA gave me lousy feet.

However, there was more to it than that since I hit the profession in a big east coast hospital at the same time AIDS did and that plus a bad flu season meant patients in the halls and a huge workload and I stayed in the trenches for 25 years.

Reasonable precautions will keep you safe if you can manage to pry masks loose from ICE, the Orange Menace's personal Gestapo. There is some negative publicity out there, so it might happen.

Health care workers in Hong Kong went on strike because Carrie Lamm diverted protective equipment to the cops and not to hospitals. I hope it doesn't have to come to that here.

I don't know what will happen, but I do know the type of workload you'll be facing and I'm too blind and crippled to help out. DEMAND that PPE and good luck.We are not angels in white. We are tough broads that no sane person would ever want to cross. Never forget that.

[diva77]

44. K&R and 1,000,000 Thank-you's

[Skittles]

45. I wondered about that, too

when all the offshoring started happening in my field, some people decided to take up nursing. I always saw professions like teaching and nursing as true callings and not just a paycheck

know that someone is always here on DU, Horse with no Name - and we care

[MLAA]

46. Thank you. These words are inadequate to acknowledge your sacrifice. 💐

[KTrahan]

49. Resources

I have been in the medical industry for a long time, lack of resources has always been an issue. How much or how many is an adequate amount? We seem to manage to get thru an MCI (Mass Casualty Incident), as long as its only 1. What happens if 2 MCI`s occur in the same area at the same time? What is the remedy? If you live in a state with a population of 4 million, should we have medical resources to manage if 1 or 2 million that get sick? We can solve this, we just need to figure out how.

[Karadeniz]

50. This post really touched me...thanks for letting us know how it feels. Gut wrenching.

[FarPoint]

51. Absolutely!

We Do Not Have the essential life saving/ prevention basics. Masks are not a respiratory tool we can survive without!

The homemade masks are fine for a high school play or Halloween...please hear us Nurses...They are inadequate, ineffective and are as fake as tRump himself.

[Joinfortmill]

53. My aunt was a nurse. You folks are saints. God bless.

[dewsgirl]

54. Please take care of yourself and thank you for all you are doing.

[FarPoint]

55. I am bewildered...

The American Nursing Association needs to confront the issue of the " homemade masks"...It's just a cosmetic effect...not a respiratory Protective Tool!!!

[Locrian]

57. +1

[uponit7771]

65. +1

[Goodheart]

56. I don't mean to be crass, but healthcare workers are among the few with job security these days.

But I sympathize with your stress.

[FarPoint]

58. We face death and possibly spreading COVID..

Without PPE....it's that simple..We earned our job security..

[hunter]

79. My wife cannot isolate herself from people who are sick. She is on the front lines.

She cannot do her job over the internet like I can, or our children can. She has to touch people. She has to invade their personal spaces.

The lack of personal protective equipment for health care professionals is criminal.

My wife went into medicine more than thirty years ago for entirely altruistic reasons and she's not going to back down for anything.

In times of crisis, be it a horrible car accident we come upon while traveling, or delivering babies in the hallways of an overflowing hospital, she jumps right into the fire.

This is like waiting for a category 5 hurricane.

[lillypaddle]

59. "Thank you" sounds so terribly trite

You don't want thanks, you want protection, and I wish to hell you get it sooner rather than later.

That having been said. Thank you. May you stay safe and healthy ... take care of yourself whenever possible.

[leighbythesea2]

66. From my best friend, urgent care frontline.

Trained as paramedic but working at an urgent care. Michigan.

"At the current moment I'm at work screening people for Covid Symptoms before they enter the building. We are SO under supplied it's scary. Our protocols change several times a day. If the situation gets anything close to Italy we're f--ked. I'm super tired about hearing about the millions of tests and personal protection equipment we're supposed to have. I'm a sitting duck here.'

She went on to say she appreciates retail workers too, but why arent we sheltering in place?

And she sent a child to a childs hospital with symptoms.

My best friend since age 10. She is not an alarmist, so this was not a normal communication style. She is a very proactive person so its that.

[seta1950]

67. Thank you

We appreciate what you do not just now but always.stay well.

[Catherine Vincent]

68. Thank you and all medical staff

Take a look at this video in the link where there are auctions for tons of masks. The highest bidder wins. Can't CEOs of companies buy up these masks and distrubute to hospitals?

https://www.click2houston.com/news/local/2020/03/20/houston-online-auction-house-selling-marked-up-protective-gear-responds-to-criticism/#vf-all_threads-8782600019974

[AlexSFCA]

71. the country will pay a human price for this no doubt

In large hospital networks, nurses are unionized (in CA). Union leadership won’t allow nurses to not use appropriate PPE and rightfully so. Look at unions pushbacks in SF. The hospital administration will have to deal with this. No one needs to re-evaluate their life choices - safety first. If we have to ration care, healthcare workers must be a priority - we learned that from Italy. Even if it means many people will be turned away and die. We must prioritize younger people as they did in Italy. Healthcare workers deserve dignity and safe environment. Hospital administration is responsible for securing enough PPE. If they can’t, they can stop admitting new patients.

[Bluethroughu]

73. Thank you for being there for us

And please take care of yourself, whatever way you can.

You are a hero today.

The History books will not forget you.

They won't forget the dangerous corrupt incompetence of this Republicon administration.

[RhodeIslandOne]

75. Thank you

I think of someone who I considered my best friend and haven't spoken to in over a decade or so. Had a real calling for this. She's working at a Mayo Clinic down South now. I know she will throw herself into the breech on this, even though it's not her specialty. I am thinking of her and all of you on the front lines.

[exboyfil]

76. My daughter told me her hospital

Cut starting salary by $3/hr before this started, and top end by $2/hr. She is not the healthiest, and I am starting to really worry for her. She works mental health.

[radical noodle]

77. You're my hero!

I can't heap enough praise on our medical caregivers. My mother was a nurse, so I have some idea of what you deal with even when there isn't a pandemic. I cannot imagine how bad things are now.

Stay safe

[BadgerKid]

80. Like how troops were buying their own armor

Because what was provided (if anything?) was inadequate.

[McCamy Taylor]

81. I work for a huge healthcare system....

and we have been forced into lock down mode due to the shortage of PPE. WTF is wrong with this country when we cannot afford masks/gowns/eyeshields so that health care workers can treat the sick without getting sick themselves?

Since doctors/nurse/respiratory therapists/radiology techs/phlebotomists are working overtime, their resistance to disease is already weak. We are going to lose a disproportionate number of health care workers during this epidemic. Do you have a favorite doctor or nurse? Chances are that person will not be here for you next year.

[McKim]

83. My Daughter

My daughter is a professor of medicine in a mountain state. When the call went out for extra nurses in her state to apply for work, no one responded. My daughter is now working 12 hours a day taking care of regular patients so that others can take care of crisis patients. I can’t go there take care of my granddaughter or help out because she would expose me and I would not survive for sure.