But with COVID requiring enormous amounts of PPE each time we walk into a room, those annoying pump alarms now become wasteful and a large user of PPE.

So, the nurses from Ohio State used secondary IV tubing to run the pumps from outside of the room, while connected to the patient inside the closed room. It is a win win. The nurses don’t have to risk themselves every time a pump alarm goes off, and it saves precious PPE for when they really need it. Genius!

 2. Proning Teams

Early on in the COVID situation, doctors were intubating COVID patients when they went into respiratory distress. This is the typical protocol. They then discovered that the respiratory status improved when patients were placed prone instead of supine. With all the lines running to and from the patient and sometimes even a ventilator, it can take up to six people to turn a patient prone.

Since staffing is a current trouble (as always) the nurses and leaders at Massachusetts General Hospital created, designated, and trained an 80 person proning team in just three days.

According to one of the Executive Directors at Mass Gen, they have turned over 260 patients with no complications to airways or their central lines.

Maybe after COVID is over, turning teams will be a new normal to prevent ulcers?! We can hope!

 3. Code Cards

COVID continues to expose challenges with our existing systems. One nurse, at Ascension St. Vincent’s East in Birmingham, Alabama stumbled upon a challenge during their first COVID code blue.

The team typically was able to communicate with those outside the room during a code. However, since the room has to be sealed off to protect those outside of the room, there was lost communication.

The critical care nurse educator had an idea. She designed what she called code cards which have all the important medications and procedures used during a code so that they can be held up to the glass to communicate without missing a beat.

Who knew that a printer and a laminator could save lives!

4. Conversation Box

Nursing homes around the country and world have been on lockdown since the end of February, beginning of March. All of these seniors no longer have any visitation with family or friends. Most are not even allowed to go to their appointments unless it is an absolute emergency.

A nurse at a Danish nursing home created what she calls a conversation box which is essentially a safe way for nursing home residents to see their loved ones without contact.

The conversation box is a room with two separate entrances that has a class wall in the middle that you can talk through. This prevents the outside people bringing anything in that might be harmful to the residents, but still allows the residents to see their family.

There are many residents that will not outlast COVID, so to them, time with their families is priceless.

Way to go Ulla Thomsen!