Covid and work update

I know you are all sick of Covid.  You're probably sick of hearing about it.  I am too!  But even though you're sick of of, I'm giving you an update of what things look like in my facility.
For those of you who don't know about my work; I am the unit manager/infection control nurse at a skilled nursing center.  We have 2 sections, one is long term care and the other is skilled nursing - this section is for people who need rehab after surgery or injury, IV antibiotics or something similar that means they can't go home yet.
Although things seem to be improving for the most part, I think things are getting harder for us.  The rules seem to change by the week, and sometimes by the day.
We now have one whole section of our rehab area sectioned off with plastic hanging over it.  The people in this section are new admissions and are on complete isolation for 2 weeks.  They have all had Covid tests and are negative before coming to us, but in case something pops up, the isolation has to happen.

Here it is...  not pretty is it?  There are 6 rooms behind the plastic,  3 are privates, 3 are semi-private.  When we go into here we put on a N95 mask and new gown, wash in and when we come back out.


However,  we just got new rules from the CDC and now have to wear a gown, mask and face shield whenever we are anywhere in the building but in an office, so we have one face shield to wear on the regular unit, and one to wear when we go into the isolation unit.

Here I am - this is my attire every time I step out of my office.  I'm lucky that I can take it off sometimes.  The poor nurses, aides and housekeepers on the floor have to wear it all day, and I can tell you that it's very hot and uncomfortable.  I had to work the floor last weekend and had an aide actually get sick because she was so hot.  Plus it's hard to hear when people have to talk through all that.
The other thing that's going on is testing...    Our state has now mandated testing.  It's done weekly for staff and residents.  This is hard on our residents with dementia.  They have already gone for 4 months without seeing their loved ones face to face, they have had no personal Dr visits, the beautician can't come in so the only hair cuts they've had are the ones that staff has attempted and we are not professionals by any means.  Some of them were already scared of the masks and now have to see us with face shields and gowns on.  They can't hear or understand us well and now we are putting things up their noses every week.
The tests are proving to be a problem.  I have heard they are not very accurate and after seeing what's happening to us, I believe it.  We've had people come up positive with absolutely no symptoms.   We are checking vitals every 4 hours around the clock, and doing a check for symptoms at that same time.  I know that people can get this with no symptoms, but everyone?  And how can they test negative one week, positive the next and then on the recheck the next day be negative again?   We haven't had a single person that tested positive once, get a positive result on the next test.
Once staff is positive, they need to be taken off the schedule, which makes total sense - but we are short staffed and they lose their pay.  And if we can't trust the tests - it's for no reason.
Also - once they test positive, it doesn't matter how many negatives they get - it's counted as a Covid case.
I have talked to people in a few other facilities who are dealing with the same thing.  I am thankful that no one in our facility has been sick, just a positive test result.
I know Covid is real, I know some people get very sick from it, and I know we need to be careful (especially with the population I work with), but I also think there are things going on that make no sense and honestly look very suspicious.  I will also say that the medical people I know who work at various hospitals are saying the same thing and none of them are seeing the numbers that keep being reported - which may be due to false positive tests.
The other thing that's happening is people are getting out of the medical field.  It isn't that the disease scares them - it's dealing with a whole lot of regulations which make a lot more work and further isolates patients and takes away from patient care - without seeing the benefits to all these new rules. The weekly testing and paperwork alone takes 3 days, and speaking for myself, I'm working late every day and feel like I can never get done what I should, much less spend time with our residents who need it now, more than ever.
When this all started I was worried about getting Covid.  Now I am expecting that one of my weekly tests will come back positive and I will be fine, but unable to work and added to the positive count.
That's it for my rant!  I know some of you will probably not agree with this and that's ok.  I'm just sharing what it looks like on the inside.