The Impact Hand Sanitizer and Face Covering Purchases has had on

Nurses During COVID-19

Taylor James, Zoie Gainey, Carly Kubiak, Carly Davis, Maddy Mazer, Tobi Poole, Angela Pumford, Olivia Eichman

We chose this topic

Masks and because wearing face
hand-sanitizers coverings and using
are essential for hand sanitizer has
nurses to become very prevalent in
perform safe, our lives and will
quality continue to be as we
patient-centered become nurses.
care.
 Background
● When the pandemic started, face masks and hand sanitizer were becoming harder to find and
obtain.
● China was manufacturing a lot of masks and stopped sending them to the US when the pandemic
started.
● The US’s own supply of masks ran very low very fast.
● Masks were discouraged at first because it was taking away from healthcare providers
● Medical professionals were put at risk because of the decrease in supplies.
● The public was bulk buying these supplies and largely impacting the nurses in the hospitals.
● At first people were unsure if face masks worked, but over time research proved they do in fact
stop the spread
● Hand hygiene is a necessity for healthcare workers to stop the spread of deadly germs- this
includes alcohol based hand sanitizer
 Masks
● N-95 masks are the best masks to stop the spread of the virus. N-95 masks are able to filter 95%
of small particles in the air. The Covid-19 virus has been shown to spread through the inhalation
of airborne droplets spread by coughing, sneezing, or even just speaking.
● When a N-95 mask is not available, the CDC advised people to wear a standard surgical mask or
even a cloth mask or scarf as a face covering
● Some states require masks in public settings, yet some states have still not mandated
○ The difficult part of these mandates is that not all people cooperate
● When the pandemic first started affecting the US heavily
in early March of 2020, people panicked and bought out all
the masks available in the stores, causing a shortage of masks for
nurses and healthcare professionals...
 The Impact of the Mask Shortage
● Nurses and other healthcare professionals require multiple masks a day, more so during
pandemic
● At the beginning of the pandemic, people purchased more PPE than they needed, causing a
shortage for those who actually needed it, especially nurses and healthcare workers
○ N-95s, the most protective masks, were being bought by people who did not need them
more than healthcare workers
● Priority list leads to direct exposure to COVID-19 which could
lead to decrease in workers and people willing to work
● With the shortage of masks, people had to learn to improvise
 Helping Hands
● With limited supplies, people started to make masks
● Substitutes like scarves and bandanas were also used
● Tutorials came out online so anyone could participate
● At the height of the shortage, some groups like the Masked Warrior Project could
create hundreds of masks a day for donations to healthcare workers

Sarah Roffman of Masked Warrior Project

 Hand Sanitizer
● Coronavirus is spread through the air and surfaces, so good hand hygiene is helpful in preventing transmission
of the virus.
● Because we don’t always have access to running water, the best alternative is alcohol-based hand sanitizer.
● The World Health Organization (WHO) researchers exposed SARS-CoV-2 virus particles to 2 recommended
formulas of hand sanitizer. Both formulations inactivated the virus.
● Effective hand sanitizer needs to be composed of at least 30% concentration vol/vol of either ethanol or
isopropanol.

When there’s not a sink, use hand sanitizer! It’s

convenient and gets the job done.
 The Impact of the Hand Sanitizer Shortage
● To try and slow the rapid purchasing of hand sanitizer by consumers, a variety of stores (including Publix, Walgreens and Target)
limited hand sanitizer purchasing to 2 containers per person.
● Homemade hand sanitizers made without the necessary skills, equipment, and medical-grade ingredients, however, may not
contain alcohol concentrations high enough to inactivate SARS-CoV-2.
● Vodka is unsuitable for making hand sanitizer, according to Food and Drug Administration (FDA) guidelines, because it is not
the right grade of alcohol.
● Increased risk of infection for both nurses and patients
● Created an unsafe environment for everyone

Slide narrated by:

Carly Davis
 Plan to Advance the Initiative
The Code of Ethics and the Scopes of Practice inform nurses what should be done in order to
protect and advocate for the population to encourage healthy habits and sanitation to slow the
spread of COVID-19:
“Nurses should model the same health maintenance and “Legislative changes have expanded the role of nurses as
health promotion measures that they teach and research, advocates in giving voice to ethical issues for the profession
obtain health care when needed, and avoid taking and those for whom they provide care [...] nurses promote
discussion of patient-centered care, achieve consensus for
unnecessary risks to the health or safety in the course of
decision-making, empower the community to action, and
their professional and personal activities” (p.19). - Provision mentor development of self-care skills based on the
5.2 profession’s responsibility to the health and well-being of
humanity” (p. 33).
“Nurses educate the public; facilitate informed choice;
identify conditions and circumstances that contribute to
illness, injury, and disease; foster healthy lifestyles; and
participate in institutional and legislative efforts to protect
and promote health” (p. 32) - Provision 8.3
 Plan to Advance the Initiative
Nurses have strong leadership in the community and in the healthcare system which has been amplified during the COVID-19 pandemic
Patricia Davidson
RN, Dean, Professor
Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing
“Nurses have to advocate for ourselves and
our colleagues”
“Not every system is value driven”
“When there are inadequate resources,
including staffing, we as nurses need to
speak up and advocate for ourselves. We
can't take care of our patients or our families
if we don't also focus on taking care of
ourselves”
“We're reminded that it was Florence
Nightingale, the founder of modern-day
nursing, who popularized the six-foot rule
for infection control.”
(LaFave, 2020)
Nurses must continue to grow in their leadership. There have been
several leaders come from the nursing profession and cause
substantial change.
● Ruth Lubic founded the first free-standing birth center in the country in 1975 and
opened the Family Health and Birth Center in 2001 to provide care to underserved
communities.
● In the late 1940s and early 1950s, nurse Elizabeth Carnegie led the fight for the racial
integration of nursing in Florida which she successfully accomplished through leading
by example and through her “extraordinary character and organizational skills.”
● Any nurse who reminded his or her colleagues to not contaminate a sterile field or
wash his or her hands because it is protocol to stop the procedure until the task is
finished.
(Institute of Medicine (US) Committee on the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Initiative on the Future
of Nursing, 2011)
 Reference Page
American Nurses Association. (2015). Code of Ethics for Nurses with Interpretive Statements. American Nurses Association.

Nursing : scope and standards of practice. (2015). . [Silver Spring, Maryland]: American Nurses Association.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2020, February 25). Clean Hands Count for Safe Healthcare. Center for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/patientsafety/features/clean-hands-count.html

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2020, January 31). Hand Hygiene in Healthcare Setting. Center for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/handhygiene/providers/index.html

Healthcare Hygiene Magazine. (2020, April 16). Nurse Scientist Explains Why Hand Hygiene is Critical for Patients. Healthcare Hygiene Magazine.
https://www.healthcarehygienemagazine.com/nurse-scientist-explains-why-hand-hygiene-is-critical-for-patients/

Institute of Medicine (US) Committee on the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Initiative on the Future of Nursing. (2011). Transforming Leadership. In Bensen et al. (Eds.), The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health. National
Academies Press. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK209867/

Khazan, Olga. (2020, April 10). Why We’re Running Out of Masks. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/04/why-were-running-out-of-masks-in-the-coronavirus-crisis/609757/

LaFave, S. (2020, May 13). Nurses are leading the COVID-19 response around the globe. HUB for Johns Hopkins University. https://hub.jhu.edu/2020/05/13/patricia-davidson-nursing-covid-19/

McCabe, Caitlin. (2020, August 13). Face Masks Really Do Matter. The Scientific Evidence Is Growing. The Wall Street Journal. https://www.wsj.com/articles/face-masks-really-do-matter-the-scientific-evidence-is-growing-11595083298

Molteni, Megan., & Rogers, Adam. (2020, July 2). How Masks Went From Don’t-Wear to Must-Have. Wired. https://www.wired.com/story/how-masks-went-from-dont-wear-to-must-have/

TodayShow. (2020, April 3). Volunteers work with hospitals to make emergency face masks. https://www.today.com/health/volunteers-sew-homemade-face-masks-hospital-workers-t177079.