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District 1, Nurses React to SARS Epidemic
On Wednesday, April 23, The World Health Organization added Toronto to its list of cities travelers should avoid because of the SARS epidemic. Meanwhile, CWA Local 1168 in Buffalo, N.Y., and District 1 health and safety activists scrambled to protect patients, health care workers and communities.
Suspected or probable cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome in Toronto numbered 324 on April 23, third only behind China, with 2,305, and Hong Kong, with 1,458. The flu-like disease has killed at least 252 people and infected more than 4,400 worldwide. Fifteen deaths have been attributed to SARS in Toronto, the only western city on W.H.O.'s travel advisory.
Local 1168/Nurses United represents about 5,000 health care workers in the Kaleida Health system, at St. Joseph's and at Sheehan Hospital, Union Occupational Health, Renal Care, Waters of Gasport, Planned Parenthood and two daycare centers, Small Wonders and General Child Care, all in the Buffalo area.
"We're about 10 minutes from the Canadian border and about 90 miles from Toronto," said local Safety and Health Director Diane Moats. "A large percentage of the patients in our clinics are immigrants who have family members in Toronto."
Moats said health care workers have had several "rule out" cases at the Buffalo hospitals, where patients are monitored to make sure they do not have the disease.
The local has been e-mailing members and posting the latest recommendations for health care workers on bulletin boards throughout the hospitals.
"Our biggest concern is that we are not being provided the proper equipment, and adequate training on how to use it, to identify a possible SARS patient on triage, getting a patient into proper isolation, and decontamination of the equipment after use," said Moats, a registered nurse who is CWA's representative on the joint labor-management health and safety committees at Kaleida.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Moats said, is advising health care workers to wear two sets of gloves, a gown and face shield. Other more detailed recommendations are posted on websites of the CDC, W.H.O. and the New York Times.
Next week Moats and Paul Palumbo, corporate safety director for Kaleida, will conduct a train-the-trainer session for about 30 health care workers at its Columbus Health Care facility, on fit-testing the face shield, or N-95 respirator, to ensure that workers do not breathe in the corona virus that causes the disease.
Working under a grant from the New York State Department of Labor Hazard Abatement Board, administered by District 1 Safety and Health Director Mickey Siegel de Hernández, Moats and the local's Dana McCarthy have put together a comprehensive 2-hour SARS training program, which they will give May 9 at Beekman Hospital in New York City and May 15 at Deaconess Hospital in Buffalo.
McCarthy has a master's of science degree and is employed at Kaleida's Flint Road Center for Laboratory Medicine. The grant pays him to work with Moats two days a week.
The training and PowerPoint presentation will inform nurses and health care workers about SARS, the corona virus, how to handle specimens safely, management of persons who are suspected of having been exposed, processing of specimens, personal hygiene and sterilization of equipment.
The corona virus continues to mutate, and information and procedures are continually updated. Moats urged eligible nurses and health care workers to take advantage of the training and to regularly check websites.
"This is not something you wait a month to get right, because you could die," she stressed.
The Times has a special section on SARS at www.nytimes.com. Further information is available from the CDC at www.cdc.gov and W.H.O. at www.who.int.
Suspected or probable cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome in Toronto numbered 324 on April 23, third only behind China, with 2,305, and Hong Kong, with 1,458. The flu-like disease has killed at least 252 people and infected more than 4,400 worldwide. Fifteen deaths have been attributed to SARS in Toronto, the only western city on W.H.O.'s travel advisory.
Local 1168/Nurses United represents about 5,000 health care workers in the Kaleida Health system, at St. Joseph's and at Sheehan Hospital, Union Occupational Health, Renal Care, Waters of Gasport, Planned Parenthood and two daycare centers, Small Wonders and General Child Care, all in the Buffalo area.
"We're about 10 minutes from the Canadian border and about 90 miles from Toronto," said local Safety and Health Director Diane Moats. "A large percentage of the patients in our clinics are immigrants who have family members in Toronto."
Moats said health care workers have had several "rule out" cases at the Buffalo hospitals, where patients are monitored to make sure they do not have the disease.
The local has been e-mailing members and posting the latest recommendations for health care workers on bulletin boards throughout the hospitals.
"Our biggest concern is that we are not being provided the proper equipment, and adequate training on how to use it, to identify a possible SARS patient on triage, getting a patient into proper isolation, and decontamination of the equipment after use," said Moats, a registered nurse who is CWA's representative on the joint labor-management health and safety committees at Kaleida.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Moats said, is advising health care workers to wear two sets of gloves, a gown and face shield. Other more detailed recommendations are posted on websites of the CDC, W.H.O. and the New York Times.
Next week Moats and Paul Palumbo, corporate safety director for Kaleida, will conduct a train-the-trainer session for about 30 health care workers at its Columbus Health Care facility, on fit-testing the face shield, or N-95 respirator, to ensure that workers do not breathe in the corona virus that causes the disease.
Working under a grant from the New York State Department of Labor Hazard Abatement Board, administered by District 1 Safety and Health Director Mickey Siegel de Hernández, Moats and the local's Dana McCarthy have put together a comprehensive 2-hour SARS training program, which they will give May 9 at Beekman Hospital in New York City and May 15 at Deaconess Hospital in Buffalo.
McCarthy has a master's of science degree and is employed at Kaleida's Flint Road Center for Laboratory Medicine. The grant pays him to work with Moats two days a week.
The training and PowerPoint presentation will inform nurses and health care workers about SARS, the corona virus, how to handle specimens safely, management of persons who are suspected of having been exposed, processing of specimens, personal hygiene and sterilization of equipment.
The corona virus continues to mutate, and information and procedures are continually updated. Moats urged eligible nurses and health care workers to take advantage of the training and to regularly check websites.
"This is not something you wait a month to get right, because you could die," she stressed.
The Times has a special section on SARS at www.nytimes.com. Further information is available from the CDC at www.cdc.gov and W.H.O. at www.who.int.