Venkat Raman
Auckland, April 17, 2020
The New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO) has expressed its disappointed over reports that nurses are not using Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) properly at their places of work.
“There is no real evidence or proper investigation,”
that nursing and other health care staff are being blamed for bringing COVID-19 into the workplace without any real evidence or proper investigation – or that the problem is that staff are not using personal protective equipment (PPE) properly.
Specifically this has been raised in relation to Waikato Hospital and aged care sites in Canterbury, but health care workers across the country feel blamed rather than supported.
NZNO President and Kaiwhakahaere Kerri Nuku said this misinformation occurs everyday.
“The assertion that more than half of the COVID-19-positive health care staff in New Zealand contracted the virus outside work is not at all believable, and our members are surprised such things are being said. It is a suggestion that comes at a convenient time for employers in DHBs and Aged Care, who were being so roundly criticised over inadequate PPE availability,” she said.
Dedicated and compassionate
Ms Nuku said that the second implication is that nurses and care givers are being careless or are unskilled, when nothing could be further from the truth.
“Nurses and care givers are dedicated and compassionate, and courageously turn up to work where many of us wouldn’t – so to diminish that by blaming them in the middle of a very distressing situation is a very big and uncharitable call,” she said.
Quoting a research study from Wuhan released last week, Ms Nuku said that floors, surfaces and the air in health facilities can now be commonly contaminated with COVID-19.
Infection is much more likely to have come from contact with patients or from within the workplace environment itself, she said.
Demand for full PEP gear
“This underscores the need for the full PPE nurses have been demanding (including hair nets and shoe covers), which, staff who have become infected were explicitly told not to wear,” she said.
NZNO members at affected work sites will not speak up publicly because they may be disciplined for talking about their working conditions, but they say the reality of working on the COVID-19 frontline is often very different to what the public is told.
Ms Nuku said that nurses and caregivers fear for their families, whānau and communities and that worry overcomes their sleep.
“Many have told us there is clearly not enough PPE in wards and that it is often locked away so staff can’t get to it. Others say they are told to attend to patients who are showing symptoms without PPE because the patients are deemed ‘low risk’. One member wonders why PPE seems to be valued more highly than the health and wellbeing of nursing staff,” she said.
“So, it is unfair to blame nursing staff. We are all in this together and must be kind, protect the mana of our nurses and carers. This is no time to speculate and apportion blame,” she added.
