PPE’s Contribution to the Plastic Pandemic

“It’s estimated that it could take 450 years to completely decompose a surgical mask.”

Personal protective equipment (PPE) is critically important for health care workers; however, use of PPE is also contributing to environmental disaster. The COVID-19 pandemic and the monkeypox outbreak underscore how crucial protecting frontline workers is for their health and for public health at large. What is yet unclear are the environmental implications of our extensive PPE use during the pandemic. Nurses must have prominent voices at the table when discussing the future of PPE and how to deal with waste.

In the United Kingdom alone it was reported that over a period of just 53 days, 748 million PPE items were used in hospitals. In 2020, over 6.76 billion PPE items were distributed in England, three times the usual amount. Several countries reported over a 350% increase in medical waste during the height of the pandemic. During two years of the pandemic, it’s estimated that over 900 million tons of plastic waste was generated.

This ‘plastic pandemic,’ which is now a global threat that has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, began in the 1850s when early forms of plastic began replacing natural materials. Despite recycling efforts, over 60% of plastics are estimated to remain […]

2022-09-20T09:37:57-04:00September 20th, 2022|environmental health, environmental health, Public health|0 Comments
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February Issue: Racism in Nursing, Employer Vaccine Mandates, More

“Members of the health professions team should recognize, and join their colleagues in dismantling, structural racism.”—Bernice Rumala and Kenya Beard in their February Viewpoint article, “Resilience Will Not Erase Structural Racism”

The February issue of AJN is now live. Here’s what’s new. Some articles may be free only to subscribers.

Special Feature: An Overdue Reckoning on Racism in Nursing

The authors discuss a project they launched to encourage honest discussion of racism in nursing and promote meaningful actions all nurses can take to achieve an antiracist nursing profession.

CE: Using Smart IV Infusion Pumps Outside of Patient Rooms

An overview of one medical center’s use of an innovative IV pump relocation practice in response to COVID-19—and how nurses addressed concerns for safety and efficacy.

Update from the CDC: Understanding Filtering Facepiece Respirators

A discussion of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) respirator approval process, the competition from non-NIOSH-approved respirators, and how to ensure your respirator offers adequate protection.

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2022-01-31T09:10:42-05:00January 31st, 2022|Nursing|1 Comment
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‘Right Under Our Noses’: Nightmarish Nursing Home Conditions During the Pandemic

As vaccinations increase and COVID-19 infection rates in nursing homes plummet, it’s easy to forget just how bad things got in many of them and how ill-equipped many were in the the early months of the pandemic to provide humane and effective care.

The following excerpt is from our March Reflections essay, “Right Under Our Noses: Nursing Homes and COVID-19,” which was written by a California nursing professor who volunteered to join a California Medical Assistance Team. The mission of her team was to bring aid to a skilled nursing facility where the coronavirus was rapidly infecting both patients and staff, a facility with little PPE available and many staff members refusing to come to work out of fear of infection.

The conditions I saw were shocking, even to an experienced nurse. I saw soggy diapers on the floor at the heads of many beds on most mornings. One day a bedbound patient needed the bedpan. I searched every closet and drawer but there were no supplies. I filled a basin with warm water and cut up a PPE gown to make washcloths to clean the patient. On the second day of my deployment I realized that many of the […]

2021-03-18T12:10:25-04:00March 18th, 2021|COVID-19, Ethics, infectious diseases, Nursing, nursing perspective, safe staffing|1 Comment
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AJN February Issue Highlights: Communication Challenges Due to PPE, Pressure Injury Prevention, Concussions, More

“Nurses are essential to administering the vaccines, and we need to be prepared with accurate information about the science behind them: how they work, what we know and don’t know about them, and what might change as more data emerge.”—editor-in-chief Shawn Kennedy in her editorial, “Building Trust”

The February issue of AJN is now live. Here’s what’s new. Some articles may be free only to subscribers.

Original Research: Concussions at School: The Experiences and Knowledge of School Nurses

This study explores the pediatric concussion-related knowledge, confidence, and management experiences among urban and rural school nurses in Washington State.

Communication Challenges in High-Containment Clinical Environments

The authors discuss the communication challenges that arise with the wearing of PPE and describe strategies they and their colleagues in the National Institutes of Health’s Special Clinical Studies Unit used to improve communication with other staff, patients, and external partners.

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2021-02-01T14:29:13-05:00February 1st, 2021|Nursing|0 Comments
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School Nurses as the New Front Line in the Struggle to Contain COVID

School nursing services did not end when our brick-and-mortar buildings closed in March because of COVID-19.

School nurses continued to provide a full spectrum of care in the most innovative ways. We supported parents as they grappled with the enormity of the sudden pivot to remote learning and linked parents and students to community resources that school nurses know so well. We continued care coordination, working with our most vulnerable students and families; created pathways to provide virtual school nursing services; and provided health education. Certified school nurses became contact tracers, delivered meals to students and families, and explained the transition from in-person medical appointments to telehealth. And we continue to support our parents in scheduling much-needed physicals and immunization updates before school reopening.

The front line of our struggle with COVID will now be at school and school nurses will be the first responders. Students and staff with one or more COVID symptoms may be asked to isolate for a minimum of 10 days following department of health guidelines. There will be mass absenteeism of both staff and students, as close contacts for those who have tested positive will also have to quarantine for 14 days.

This information has not been communicated clearly and consistently on a statewide level to our school communities. Youth community spread of the virus is already here and we are in an ever-changing landscape in terms of COVID-19 containment—we are chasing this virus and the virus […]

2020-08-12T09:20:23-04:00August 12th, 2020|Nursing, Public health, school nurses|1 Comment
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Views expressed on the blog are solely those of the authors or persons quoted. They do not necessarily reflect AJN’s views or those of Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams and Wilkins.
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