I have noticed a significant increase in general laxity about PPE since COVID masking has been dropped. A significant % of OR staff (esp anesthesia & RTs) not bothering to mask inside actual OR even when sterile fields are open & set up.
Nurses inside OR generally much more consistent (they directly handle & set up sterile equipment).
I’ve seen unmasked anesthesiologists & RTs for emergency CS & gyne cases… I don’t get it. We mask to prevent contamination of open surgical wounds. Just because COVID mask mandates are over doesn’t mean INSIDE an operating room is a mask free zone.
Used to be that it was unthinkable to be unmasked inside an active OR. Even in the hallways during active OR time. It’s a sad commentary on the impact of the antimask stupidity spilling over to areas where it can impact quality & safety of the patient care environment.
I’m just one person who chooses to be fastidious about masking inside the hospital, I can’t take on the entire system. But it’s discouraging to see & I wonder how many patients go on to have nosocomial surgical infections because of relaxed cultures around masking now.
@heiltsuk_paleo @LaSeletzky I missed something, I would never have been allowed in my OR to do surgery without my mask and gown and gloves
@heiltsuk_paleo @MelanieWeckert I hope you aren't implying that antimask attitudes don't impact patient safety elsewhere in the hospital. Because they very much do.
@heiltsuk_paleo I can't understand how a pandemic made people want to be actively *less* cautious than they were before. Shared misery? Fatalism? Crazy to hear how professions who wore masks with no issue in the before times now act like it's an insurmountable and unreasonable act.
@heiltsuk_paleo @JJason_DJ_FM_AM This is pathological… was it an unspoken consideration for patients before or it was a rule they had to mask in OR?
@heiltsuk_paleo It's sad and scary - if there is one place I want to feel safe it's in an OR.
@heiltsuk_paleo My wife went to er bleeding from a cesarean nurse came in without gloves
@heiltsuk_paleo This is really frustrating. Thank you for masking to protect your patients.