ABSTRACT
ABSTRACT: Protecting nurses in healthcare facilities from SARS-CoV-2 infection is essential for maintaining an adequate nursing force. Foundational guidelines, consistently utilized, protect the nursing staff from infection. This article describes guidelines designed to reduce acute infection and associated morbidity and mortality among nursing staff and improve compliance with infection prevention protocols.
Subject(s)
COVID-19/nursing , COVID-19/prevention & control , Infectious Disease Transmission, Patient-to-Professional/prevention & control , Nursing Staff , Practice Guidelines as Topic , COVID-19/transmission , Hand Hygiene , Humans , Infection Control/methods , Personal Protective Equipment , Respiratory Protective DevicesSubject(s)
COVID-19 , Education, Distance , Delivery of Health Care , Health Personnel , Humans , Pandemics , Primary Health Care , SARS-CoV-2Subject(s)
Betacoronavirus , Coronavirus Infections/therapy , Phototherapy , Pneumonia, Viral/therapy , COVID-19 , Humans , Pandemics , SARS-CoV-2ABSTRACT
This document establishes safety guidelines for physicians, nurses, and allied health care and facility staff who may be exposed to patients infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in a health care facility. SARS-CoV-2 infection is highly contagious and places health care workers at risk for infection resulting in coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Physicians, nurses, and allied health care and facility staff in all frontline environments must be provided and utilize necessary personal protective equipment (PPE). It is important that health care staff adopt a universal set of guidelines in which to conduct themselves in order to minimize infection with the SARS-CoV-2 contagion. The establishment of these guidelines is necessary in this viral pandemic since such directives can create a standard of safety that is universally accepted. These guidelines establish a framework to provide consistency among health care facilities and staff from the time the staff member arrives at the health care facility until they return home. These guidelines provide a practical description of the minimum necessary protection for physicians, nurses, and allied health care and facility staff against SARS-CoV-2 infection.
Subject(s)
Coronavirus Infections/prevention & control , Health Personnel , Infectious Disease Transmission, Patient-to-Professional/prevention & control , Pandemics/prevention & control , Pneumonia, Viral/prevention & control , Safety , COVID-19 , Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. , Coronavirus Infections/epidemiology , Coronavirus Infections/transmission , Humans , Personal Protective Equipment , Pneumonia, Viral/epidemiology , Pneumonia, Viral/transmission , United States/epidemiologyABSTRACT
ABSTRACT: Protection of nurses in healthcare facilities from SARS-CoV-2 infection is essential for maintaining an adequate nursing force. Foundational guidelines consistently utilized, will protect the nursing staff from infection. This article provides guidelines that, when followed by frontline nursing staff, can reasonably be expected to reduce acute infection, associated morbidity, and mortality.
