Episode 17: The Inability to Breathe: The Hidden Toll of Wearing PPE for Nurses During COVID-19

The Inability To Breathe is today's podcast episode that discusses the impact of wearing heavy-duty PPE for long periods on healthcare workers, especially nurses, who have been dealing with the aftermath of the pandemic. 

You will understand PPE's short- and long-term physiological consequences on nurses, including its impact on their vital signs and the likelihood of side effects such as headaches, earaches, and welts. 

However, this isn't merely a tale about PPE's material effects. It's also about how stressful it is for frontline nurses to make life-or-death choices when trying to get enough air.

 Tune in to hear the experiences of real nurses and find out more.

Transcript

Intro
To say it’s been a crazy few years would be an understatement. We live in an ever changing world, one constantly challenging people to their very core. It is because of this we aim to create assuredness in an uncertain world. 

Welcome to the Project ReNew podcast, a show for nurses - and angels looking to help nurses - and anyone in search of motivation. Let’s bring you and your passion back to where you were when you first started out. 

Let’s reignite that fire together. This is the Project ReNew Podcast.



The Inability To Breathe

The Problem Before the pandemic, the ability to breathe freely and deeply was one that everyone took lightly. When the public were complaining about wearing a cloth mask in stores, nurses were having to wear full medical grade PPE in order to protect themselves and their loved ones at home from contracting covid-19.

 Actually seeing a nurse dressed in full PPE was frightening to begin with, but now just seems like the New Normal towards the end of the pandemic. The Explanation As nurses wear heavy-duty equipment over our face and mouths, there is a high likelihood that this will affect our vital signs.

 Studies on nurses wearing PPE during the covid-19 pandemic found that whilst wearing PPE, our SpO2 increases, alongside our respiratory rate, our body temperature rises, our heart rate increases, and our blood pressure increases.

Please note that this study was completed on nurses only wearing PPE, not wearing PPE whilst doing a busy work shift, therefore the blood pressure increase is only due to the PPE, not the stress of work. Where is the care for nurses' health and wellbeing at this point?

 How can we care for others, when wearing this equipment decreases our overall well-being? Of course, if you had to choose between elevating your blood pressure or contracting covid, most nurses would choose to wear PPE that increases the blood pressure rather than contract a  deadly respiratory virus.

But you shouldn't be a trade-off between one horrible situation to another. In addition to the internal signs that PPE is not good for your body, PPE is associated with an increase in headaches, earaches, and welts across your nose and head.

 This could be extremely disconcerting for nurses' everyday life, and may prevent them from completing normal activities such as grocery shopping or seeing friends. This lack of work-life balance could be even more detrimental to a nurse's mental health.

 Other side effects included brain fog and exhaustion - which is exactly the combination you do not want when being tasked with life saving decisions, needing to be taken quickly in life or death situations.

However, as per usual nurses are just expected to get on with it.

Nurses are wearing this PPE and in a very physically demanding environment.

 For long hours at a time.

 looking after a higher patient caseload that is ethically plausible, and tasked with life or death situations.

 In full PPE, it is very difficult to receive adequate hydration and nutrition that will often keep you going during a busy shift.

 This could lead to an increase in fainting, migraines, anxiety and breathlessness.

 For the Frontline nurses working on a covid ward, treating patients unable to breathe - the irony is, underneath the PPE is the nurse struggling to breathe themselves.

The Solution In order for nurses to provide the best possible care for their patients in the pandemic, the PPE that they wear should not cause damage to the nurses’ system.

 Wearing PPE that is detrimental to your physical well-being could worsen morale amongst nursing staff, as well as increasing the likelihood of needing sick leave or increasing the risk of developing mental health issues.

 The reality is that nurses in the Healthcare industry must wear PPE as we are at higher risk of contracting coronavirus.

 However, more studies need to be done into the long-term physiological effects of wearing PPE. At the minute, because the pandemic is so new, only the short term effects have been assessed.

 However, if we already know that wearing full PPE raises our blood pressure, puts strain on our hearts, limits our breathing, and we have to wear this everyday, 12 hours a day for 2 years or longer, then what effect will this have on our bodies in 10 or 20 years? Nobody is asking - you know why?

 Because nurses at this point in time are expendable. We have a recruitment crisis. We are hemorrhaging nurses out of the system, but it doesn't matter - we will just redeploy nurses into the shortest staffed area, leaving another unit barely going. This is the sorry affair of the nursing system we are in.

A Question to Consider .Are you able to speak out about your lived experience as a nurse wearing PPE? Do you feel like you have somebody who understands, who will listen to you? When you come home, feeling breathless, filled with anxiety, with red welts across your nose and cheeks - who will you turn to? If we don't start speaking up about this, we will be left to suffer in silence. You are not alone. Sources For Help and Advice

 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35253717/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7775948/ https://content.iospress.com/articles/work/wor211232 https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1755-1315/819/1/012086/pdf https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/11/1/e046199

 
Outro
We really hope you enjoyed this episode of the Project ReNew Podcast. Stay connected with us through www.ProjectReNew.Co. You can also join this discussion on Twitter @ProjectReNewPod, and on Instagram at @ProjectReNewPodcast. If you would like to speak with us, please send us an email through our website. As always, thank you for pushing your mindset and your heart towards a better reality. This concludes the most thought-provoking part of your day. Don’t forget to like and subscribe to stay fully up to date. Until next time, be kind to yourself, and to
each other.

 As a fellow nurse, I want to take a moment to express my appreciation for each and every one of our listeners. 

As nurses, we are all part of an essential and noble profession, and our dedication and hard work make a real difference in the lives of our patients. 

As Brené Brown says, ' Resilience is the ability to move through difficult experiences and to come out on the other side with wisdom and compassion.' 

Our podcast is dedicated to exploring resilience from trauma and the pandemic, providing practical advice and reviews of symptoms to help our listeners navigate these challenging times.

It's important to note that the information provided in our podcast is for educational and informational purposes only.

 The content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical or mental health advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

 Always seek the advice of your physician, other qualified healthcare provider or mental health professional with any questions you may have regarding a medical or mental health condition.

 As a colleague, I encourage you to continue to listen to our podcast, engage with the content, and use it to enhance your nursing practice and further your professional and personal growth."