These 8 COVID Nursing Tips Could Save Your Life
Whether we want to admit it or not, working through a respiratory pandemic is exhausting and at times demoralizing. These COVID nursing tips are the practical, real-world habits that help ER and inpatient nurses get through a shift safely — and protect themselves and the people they go home to.
Burnout is real, and nurses across the country have felt it. Below are eight concrete tips for the bedside — from minimizing exposure to building a decontamination routine before you walk in your front door.
1. Minimize Contact
Easier said than done — but minimize contact with patients who have symptoms consistent with COVID. As a refresher, common symptoms include:
As an NP, much of the history can be taken from 3–6 feet away, with a limited physical exam often performed without even touching the patient. Bedside nurses are far more hands-on — but you can still cluster your care to limit exposure.
Cluster Your Care
Get everything you need before gowning up: IV equipment and blood tubes, vital-sign hookups, ordered meds, and a nasopharyngeal swab. If an ambulatory pulse ox may be ordered, walk the patient around the room while recording SpO2 — anticipating orders is good nursing judgment, and it means fewer trips into the room.
2. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle (Your N95)
Don't take your N95 for granted — supplies can run short. Before COVID, an N95 was treated like a surgical mask: applied on entry, discarded on exit. That luxury is gone. Many hospitals have decontamination protocols, but not all do. If needed, here are ways to safely decontaminate your own N95.
Other methods — moist heat, UV radiation, boiling, and steaming — all kill the virus but degrade the N95 at varying rates and are harder to do safely at home. If decontaminating and reusing doesn't fit your comfort level, you can skip ahead to a reusable device.
3. Buy a Reusable N95 Device
Reusable N95 devices are reasonably affordable and often worth it. A reusable N95 is more comfortable, less of a hassle, and can leave you feeling better protected.
Heads Up
It can be harder for people to hear you through a respirator — especially over the phone. Factor that in before a long shift of phone handoffs.
4. Protect Your Skin
We've all seen photos of nurses with deep facial markings after a 12-hour shift in an N95 — and many of us have lived it. Wearing an N95 all shift can cause your own skin breakdown, which is irritating, painful, and can progress to open wounds. A few tips help.
If you can safely remove the N95, the recommendation is a 15-minute break every 2 hours. For most of us during a surge, that simply isn't feasible — so the next two options matter more.
Probably the safest option. A liquid skin protectant, once applied and dried, creates a barrier that minimizes moisture and friction. Skin-repair creams with dimethicone also help. Apply over the high-pressure areas — nasal bridge, cheeks, and behind the ears — avoiding eyes and mouth, and let it fully dry before donning the N95.
If protectant isn't enough, a thin dressing can be used — but it can alter the N95 fit, which is why protectant is safer. Cut a thin hydrocolloid dressing into small pieces and apply a thin layer to the nasal bridge, cheekbones, and behind the ears. Then confirm the seal by exhaling and checking for leaks (formal fit testing is more accurate when available).
5. Surgical Mask Woes
Even with an N95, we're often asked to wear a surgical mask over it. This prevents soiling of the N95 and adds a layer of splash protection. The downside: ear loops dig in and cause skin breakdown — and just plain hurt.
6. Bad Breath
No — wearing a mask won't give you hypercarbia. But it can give you hyper-halitosis. If you have bad breath, you'll definitely notice it now, and 12-hour shifts without water breaks cause dry mouth that makes it worse.
7. Wrap It Before You Tap It
No — not sex-ed. I'm talking about your smartphone! Let's be real: we all bring our phones to work. We check the time, our messages, and reference apps for things like antibiotic selection during patient care. The problem is we don't want to contaminate our phones.
Do NOT Bake Your Phone
Whatever you do to your N95, don't do it to your phone. If you use your phone unprotected, decontaminate it with a wipe — never the oven.
8. Decontamination Station
After a long shift, all you want is to get home and crawl into bed — but you're carrying contamination on your body, scrubs, and everything you've touched. Have a procedure so you don't infect your household.
Leave anything you can — stethoscope, scissors, pens, penlight. If you have a locker, use it.
Carry hand sanitizer in your car and use it immediately before touching the steering wheel. Don't touch your face now that you're maskless.
At home, strip quickly without touching anybody or anything. Pocket items (like your phone) go on a counter; clothes go straight into the washer. Take an immediate hot shower with plenty of soap.
Disinfect everything you touched — doorknobs, bathroom door — and the items you set on the counter. Clorox or Lysol wipes work; a disinfectant like Pine-Sol kills the virus within about 10 minutes.
Always Follow Hospital Policy
As always, follow your hospital's policies and procedures whenever implementing any of these tips. During an unconventional surge there may be less oversight of infection-control practices, so make sure anything you do is safe for both you and your patients.
Clinical Pearls
Related Guides
References
- Risk of COVID-19 among front-line health-care workers and the general community: a prospective cohort study. The Lancet Public Health.
- Sustainability of Coronavirus on Different Surfaces. NCBI (PMC).
Great article, full of useful information! As a new nurse on a tele floor who will be floated to the COVID-19 unit at any given moment, I appreciate the simplicity of your great tips! They truly make this whole situation less intimidating and less overwhelming. Thank you for the tips! Stay safe ❤️
Thank you! A new nurse during 2020 – I can’t even imagine! Good luck floating to the COVID floor!
Thank you these are excellent tips. I never thought about using dimethicone.