ROYAL OAK, Mich. – One nurse said being in Royal Oak Beaumont’s coronavirus (COVID-19) unit is “like being in a sci-fi movie.”
She, and others, claim they don’t have enough personal protective equipment. She said they have to reuse things like masks and gowns.
Nurses described the conditions inside the hospital anonymously for fear of being fired.
“We work in controlled chaos,” the nurse said.
She said reusing the equipment goes against everything they were taught as nurses.
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Another nurse said you could tell when the masks started failing, because they’d fog up.
“Everybody started getting sick. Over 30 nurse sick ... I just felt unsafe,” a nurse said.
The nurse said two other nurses were in the intensive care unit. They also said that the coronavirus numbers aren’t right because people are not being tested.
They said more than half of their unit officially has COVID-19, and they believe it’s because of faulty protective gear.
“We’re expendable,” a nurse said.
Beaumont Health’s Chief Nursing Officer Susan Grant does not feel they are in danger on the job.
She said they are sterilizing and reusing masks, but that’s because they’re forced to preserve as many as possible because of a PPE shortage at the national level.