By Kathey Fawn, Therapy Resource, Keystone, Mission Market – TX
I know many of you are struggling with COVID outbreaks right now. It’s more important now than ever to partner closely with our Nursing counterparts to make sure infection control is at the top of everyone’s mind. If you haven’t done an in-service on PPE and hand washing lately, consider doing that at your rehab meeting this next week. Double check with your DNS on current isolation and masking protocols in your facility. I know everyone is weary, but as this new wave surges and state surveyors are becoming more critical, we have to remain diligent. Make it a game! The first person to donn and doff full PPE five times correctly gets a gift card! PPE and hand washing relay races! PPE poster contests! Do whatever it takes to make your teams be thinking about it and share your good ideas with all of us. The first person to respond with pictures of a creative infection control activity with your team gets lunch on me!
Woo-hoo! We stopped what we were doing down in the therapy gym at Parklane to go over hand washing. We used Glo Germ Gel to review just how thorough we have to be to get squeaky clean hands! Lots of laughter, with a side of learning! …Jennifer Henderson, OTR, DOR, Parklane West Rehabilitation Center, San Antonio, TX
Let’s keep in mind the strategies we can use when these situations arise. Do we have residents in the facility who are not skilled and still need our services during an outbreak scenario? If our therapists are out with COVID, are they able and willing to do Telehealth? Are they able to use some of this time they are at home to complete annual Ensign U? Let’s ensure we know what patients are coming off of skilled services to our LTC units and assessing their needs. Many of them have declines and experience isolation during this transition time, so they will definitely need us to be involved