Do you feel that you have adequate knowledge and skills regarding the care of the patient with Ebola? Do you know what your responsibilities will be if a patient presents to your hospital with Ebola? There is copious information that's available from the CDC and the Department of Health, some of which is changing just as quickly as it becomes available.
As nurses we have a responsibility to ourselves and to our patients to be diligent in our quest for knowledge and skills. We have a responsibility to ensure that our organization not only has a plan to deliver care, but that we actually have simulated drills to assess levels of competency needed to contain the spread of this potentially fatal disease.
These simulated drills should include prompt identification and isolation of suspected patients, the appropriate donning and doffing of personal protective equipment (PPE), safe handling of specimens, general care of patients, and waste management.
Procedures for dealing with Ebola are so critical that didactic education alone won't provide the skill and confidence level necessary for containment. It's essential that continuous drilling of these procedures occurs at the actual point of care. For example, you should practice handoffs of lab specimens from nursing to lab staff and actually walk through the chain of custody for that specimen.1
Education can be considered in a tiered approach. There is some education that's needed by all providers, such as PPE, and there's other more specific information that's needed by the designated team identified to care for these patients, such as specimen handling.
Other CDC Recommendations include:
* Provide a single patient room containing a private bath, with the door kept closed.
* Only permit those individuals that are essential to the patient's care into the room.
* Maintain a log of all persons entering the room.
* Everyone accessing the room of a patient suspected of having Ebola should wear PPE.
* Don and doff PPE in a buddy fashion to maintain the integrity of the PPE.
* Use disposable medical equipment preferably.
* Limit the use of needles and sharps.
* Avoid aerosol generating procedures.
* Develop policies for monitoring and managing the potentially exposed.
* Develop policies for healthcare providers to take sick leave that are non-punitive.2
This is a time when all nurses must unite and support each other through exchange of knowledge and best practices in order to provide the best care possible, while containing the spread of Ebola.
I encourage each of you to be actively involved in your organization's care and containment plan for Ebola. With knowledge comes confidence and competence to safely care for our very vulnerable patients.
Until the next time, be healthy, be happy, be great advocates for your patients, and be safe!
AnneMarie Palatnik, MSN, APN, ACNS-BC
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