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They go to work when the rest of the nation is told to stay at home, and they care for the sick — even those who have COVID-19, the disease caused by novel coronavirus — in emergency rooms, intensive-care units, at doctor's offices.
Yet Michigan nurses say they're on the front lines, fighting the global pandemic without the proper protective gear like masks, gowns and face shields to keep themselves from getting sick, bringing the disease home to their families and potentially spreading it to other patients.
More than a half-dozen Michigan nurses from hospital systems that include Henry Ford Health System, Beaumont Health, and McLaren Health Care gave detailed accounts Friday to the Free Press about scenarios they say endangered themselves and other patients.
They all spoke on the condition of anonymity late last week because they have been told by their managers that if they talk about this publicly, they will lose their jobs.
"My division does not have N95 masks," said a Henry Ford Health System nurse who works in direct patient care, saying that her hospital is rationing supplies.
She now wears a regular surgical mask to treat patients with COVID-19 symptoms. Gowns and N95 respirator masks are being reserved for the medical staff working at the coronavirus drive-up screening tents and at hospital entrances.
"I need my job but I am risking my own health everyday now," she said. "Honest to goodness, it’s getting worse day by day.
"Patients are coughing in our faces. They are throwing up on us."
She worries that a time will come soon when there won't even be surgical masks to wear. When she and others in her department discuss their concerns with managers, she said, "We are told that they have to prioritize gowns and masks because of the shortage. But why aren't we a priority?
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"They are telling us not to worry about it, and to watch for the symptoms."
The Henry Ford nurse explained that she has been exposed at least three times to patients who had COVID-19 symptoms — fever, cough, difficulty breathing. These were patients who qualified for testing for the virus. Yet she was wearing nothing more than a surgical mask.
Because it's believed that the novel coronavirus is transmitted primarily through droplets when a person coughs or sneezes, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention initially recommended that medical staff should wear N95 respirator masks, gowns and face shields to limit the possibility of infection.
But since there is a national shortage of masks and other protective gear, the federal agency changed its recommendations to suggest regular surgical masks would work. And more recently, it issued new guidelines saying that if regular masks are not available, homemade masks, such as bandannas or scarves, should be used "to care for patients with COVID-19 as a last resort."
Dr. Betty Chu, associate chief clinical officer and chief quality officer for Henry Ford Health System, said Saturday that most hospital systems are following CDC's guidelines as they change.
"Most health systems have gone to surgical mask usage around COVID-positive patients unless you have an ... aerosolized procedure," she said. "We've been providing N95 masks when necessary for patients who are getting aerosolized procedures who are COVID positive, and again, surgical masks when patients are COVID-positive."
The changing CDC recommendations for working with COVID-19 patients drew the ire of health care workers around the nation. As of Saturday morning, more than 900,000 nurses, doctors and medical staff and their supporters signed a change.org petition calling for action to get better supplies to protect them as they care for sick patients with coronavirus.
For a Beaumont nurse, the issue goes beyond protecting herself, it's also about keeping other patients safe and limiting the spread of the disease, which, as of Friday afternoon, had infected 549 people in Michigan and killed four, according to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services and the Oakland County Health Division.
Nationally, more than 19,285 people have confirmed coronavirus cases and 249 have died, according to the Johns Hopkins COVID-19 Global Case Tracker. As many as 147 Americans have recovered from the disease as of Friday night.
"It is not just our safety we are worried about not having the proper PPE (personal protective equipment) available, it is the safety of the other patients and the community," she said.
President Donald Trump invoked the Defense Production Act earlier this week, mobilizing federal agencies to get medical supplies to hospitals and health care workers. And Vice President Mike Pence said that manufacturers are ramping up production of face masks and other essential medical supplies. He called on construction companies and other industries to donate their stockpiles to health care workers.
Michigan recently received a shipment from the Strategic National Stockpile, a repository of pharmaceutical and medical supplies maintained by the federal government for use in a public health emergency. It included 95,000 N95 respirators; 35,000 surgical gowns; 125,000 pairs of non-sterile gloves; 43,000 face shields, and 225,000 surgical face masks, said Lynn Sutfin, a spokeswoman for the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said Friday that her office has been working with Michigan companies to come up with supplies like ventilators, gowns and masks.
"A few companies in Michigan were able to secure and get more masks for us and I’m confident that it’s in the millions,” said Whitmer, who also signed an executive order Friday restricting nonessential medical and dental procedures in the state so the health care system could focus on managing the COVID-19 outbreak.
“By limiting elective surgical procedures, you keep people from unnecessarily exposing others to the virus and you’re also preserving supplies of gowns and masks," said Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, the state's chief medical officer.
Oakland County Executive Dave Coulter asked Saturday morning for businesses, dental offices and doctor's offices that have closed to donate medical supplies. And in Ann Arbor, the head of research at the University of Michigan Medical School issued a similar plea last week, sending an email to the research community, urging them to donate masks, gloves, gowns and other supplies to the hospital for use in the outbreak. Henry Ford Health System has made a similar call for donations.
Henry Ford's Vice President of Supply Chain Management Jim O'Conner said Saturday afternoon that the health system received 12,000 N95 respirator masks and 16,000 procedural masks on Friday for use by its hospital staff.
"Under normal, typical consumption that would last us, you know, almost a month," he said. "But under this environment, hard to predict, but days would be the accurate answer, just days.
"So, therein lies the challenge for not only Henry Ford Health System, but virtually every health system in the United States."
He said Ford Motor Co. and General Motors have donated industrial masks and are interested in supporting the manufacturing of supplies, too.
"We're working very aggressively, with a lot of support from industry as well as ... a lot of people who want to volunteer and contribute."
While the situation is changing fast, for nurses at many Michigan health systems, the relief is coming too late.
They said Friday that they are not not seeing any increases in stock yet.
There were several instances this week when Beaumont nurses said they were exposed while treating patients who later tested positive for COVID-19. They weren't given masks at all until the patients they cared for had positive coronavirus tests.
Without wearing proper gear, several of their colleagues are now symptomatic and may also now have the virus themselves, they said.
"The initial recommendations of the CDC were that staff who were exposed should be quarantined for 14 days to help stop spread," one Beaumont nurse said. "Now, the practice is you can work until you begin to show symptoms. The danger in this is that many of us are caring for both COVID and non-COVID patients simultaneously within that 14-day period."
And because research about this new form of coronavirus suggests that people can be contagious before they have symptoms, there's a chance health care workers are spreading the disease while caring for vulnerable patients who might not yet be infected.
"We're caring for people who have it and for people who don't," the nurse said. "And that makes it real easy to spread to them. And if those patients get discharged, they're going back into the community.
"And a lot of patients, especially because the highest population in the hospital are geriatric patients, a lot of them do go to sub-acute rehab or back to nursing homes. And then we have, you know, a Washington state situation all over again."
There, an outbreak of novel coronavirus in a nursing home in King County led to more than 790 COVID-19 infections and at least 67 deaths.
Story Larger than I thought it was: Please Carry on Here if you're finding it interesting....
What I found was there's no consideration for the health care workers themselves, the patents, and everyone's families in general.. Heads should be rolling...
Yet Michigan nurses say they're on the front lines, fighting the global pandemic without the proper protective gear like masks, gowns and face shields to keep themselves from getting sick, bringing the disease home to their families and potentially spreading it to other patients.
More than a half-dozen Michigan nurses from hospital systems that include Henry Ford Health System, Beaumont Health, and McLaren Health Care gave detailed accounts Friday to the Free Press about scenarios they say endangered themselves and other patients.
They all spoke on the condition of anonymity late last week because they have been told by their managers that if they talk about this publicly, they will lose their jobs.
"My division does not have N95 masks," said a Henry Ford Health System nurse who works in direct patient care, saying that her hospital is rationing supplies.
She now wears a regular surgical mask to treat patients with COVID-19 symptoms. Gowns and N95 respirator masks are being reserved for the medical staff working at the coronavirus drive-up screening tents and at hospital entrances.
"I need my job but I am risking my own health everyday now," she said. "Honest to goodness, it’s getting worse day by day.
"Patients are coughing in our faces. They are throwing up on us."
She worries that a time will come soon when there won't even be surgical masks to wear. When she and others in her department discuss their concerns with managers, she said, "We are told that they have to prioritize gowns and masks because of the shortage. But why aren't we a priority?
Beaumont CEO blasts state for lack of hospital data during coronavirus
Michigan surpasses 15,000 coronavirus cases, 600 deaths
Detroit auto show schedule change likely avoided earlier coronavirus outbreak, experts say
Miracle in Plymouth: UAW worker celebrates Ford making 1M face shields in 13 days
Mitch Albom: In coronavirus crisis, our humanity saves us
"They are telling us not to worry about it, and to watch for the symptoms."
The Henry Ford nurse explained that she has been exposed at least three times to patients who had COVID-19 symptoms — fever, cough, difficulty breathing. These were patients who qualified for testing for the virus. Yet she was wearing nothing more than a surgical mask.
Because it's believed that the novel coronavirus is transmitted primarily through droplets when a person coughs or sneezes, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention initially recommended that medical staff should wear N95 respirator masks, gowns and face shields to limit the possibility of infection.
But since there is a national shortage of masks and other protective gear, the federal agency changed its recommendations to suggest regular surgical masks would work. And more recently, it issued new guidelines saying that if regular masks are not available, homemade masks, such as bandannas or scarves, should be used "to care for patients with COVID-19 as a last resort."
Dr. Betty Chu, associate chief clinical officer and chief quality officer for Henry Ford Health System, said Saturday that most hospital systems are following CDC's guidelines as they change.
"Most health systems have gone to surgical mask usage around COVID-positive patients unless you have an ... aerosolized procedure," she said. "We've been providing N95 masks when necessary for patients who are getting aerosolized procedures who are COVID positive, and again, surgical masks when patients are COVID-positive."
The changing CDC recommendations for working with COVID-19 patients drew the ire of health care workers around the nation. As of Saturday morning, more than 900,000 nurses, doctors and medical staff and their supporters signed a change.org petition calling for action to get better supplies to protect them as they care for sick patients with coronavirus.
For a Beaumont nurse, the issue goes beyond protecting herself, it's also about keeping other patients safe and limiting the spread of the disease, which, as of Friday afternoon, had infected 549 people in Michigan and killed four, according to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services and the Oakland County Health Division.
Nationally, more than 19,285 people have confirmed coronavirus cases and 249 have died, according to the Johns Hopkins COVID-19 Global Case Tracker. As many as 147 Americans have recovered from the disease as of Friday night.
"It is not just our safety we are worried about not having the proper PPE (personal protective equipment) available, it is the safety of the other patients and the community," she said.
President Donald Trump invoked the Defense Production Act earlier this week, mobilizing federal agencies to get medical supplies to hospitals and health care workers. And Vice President Mike Pence said that manufacturers are ramping up production of face masks and other essential medical supplies. He called on construction companies and other industries to donate their stockpiles to health care workers.
Michigan recently received a shipment from the Strategic National Stockpile, a repository of pharmaceutical and medical supplies maintained by the federal government for use in a public health emergency. It included 95,000 N95 respirators; 35,000 surgical gowns; 125,000 pairs of non-sterile gloves; 43,000 face shields, and 225,000 surgical face masks, said Lynn Sutfin, a spokeswoman for the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said Friday that her office has been working with Michigan companies to come up with supplies like ventilators, gowns and masks.
"A few companies in Michigan were able to secure and get more masks for us and I’m confident that it’s in the millions,” said Whitmer, who also signed an executive order Friday restricting nonessential medical and dental procedures in the state so the health care system could focus on managing the COVID-19 outbreak.
“By limiting elective surgical procedures, you keep people from unnecessarily exposing others to the virus and you’re also preserving supplies of gowns and masks," said Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, the state's chief medical officer.
Oakland County Executive Dave Coulter asked Saturday morning for businesses, dental offices and doctor's offices that have closed to donate medical supplies. And in Ann Arbor, the head of research at the University of Michigan Medical School issued a similar plea last week, sending an email to the research community, urging them to donate masks, gloves, gowns and other supplies to the hospital for use in the outbreak. Henry Ford Health System has made a similar call for donations.
Henry Ford's Vice President of Supply Chain Management Jim O'Conner said Saturday afternoon that the health system received 12,000 N95 respirator masks and 16,000 procedural masks on Friday for use by its hospital staff.
"Under normal, typical consumption that would last us, you know, almost a month," he said. "But under this environment, hard to predict, but days would be the accurate answer, just days.
"So, therein lies the challenge for not only Henry Ford Health System, but virtually every health system in the United States."
He said Ford Motor Co. and General Motors have donated industrial masks and are interested in supporting the manufacturing of supplies, too.
"We're working very aggressively, with a lot of support from industry as well as ... a lot of people who want to volunteer and contribute."
While the situation is changing fast, for nurses at many Michigan health systems, the relief is coming too late.
They said Friday that they are not not seeing any increases in stock yet.
There were several instances this week when Beaumont nurses said they were exposed while treating patients who later tested positive for COVID-19. They weren't given masks at all until the patients they cared for had positive coronavirus tests.
Without wearing proper gear, several of their colleagues are now symptomatic and may also now have the virus themselves, they said.
"The initial recommendations of the CDC were that staff who were exposed should be quarantined for 14 days to help stop spread," one Beaumont nurse said. "Now, the practice is you can work until you begin to show symptoms. The danger in this is that many of us are caring for both COVID and non-COVID patients simultaneously within that 14-day period."
And because research about this new form of coronavirus suggests that people can be contagious before they have symptoms, there's a chance health care workers are spreading the disease while caring for vulnerable patients who might not yet be infected.
"We're caring for people who have it and for people who don't," the nurse said. "And that makes it real easy to spread to them. And if those patients get discharged, they're going back into the community.
"And a lot of patients, especially because the highest population in the hospital are geriatric patients, a lot of them do go to sub-acute rehab or back to nursing homes. And then we have, you know, a Washington state situation all over again."
There, an outbreak of novel coronavirus in a nursing home in King County led to more than 790 COVID-19 infections and at least 67 deaths.
Story Larger than I thought it was: Please Carry on Here if you're finding it interesting....
What I found was there's no consideration for the health care workers themselves, the patents, and everyone's families in general.. Heads should be rolling...
