This week, the Emergency Nurses Association Government Relations Team sent out the following message urging ENA members to contact their national leaders to help alleviate the shortage of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for healthcare workers across the country. Consider joining in and advocating for safer working conditions for emergency nurses and our other healthcare colleagues:
Current PPE stockpiles will soon be depleted, leaving workers and patients exposed to COVID-19.
Emergency nurses and other frontline professionals who are providing critical support during the current COVID-19 pandemic are facing a dangerous reality as supplies of critical personal protective equipment (PPE), such as N95 medical masks, are drying up. N95 masks are the minimum level of protection frontline providers can use as effective against the novel coronavirus. Despite recent actions taken by Congress to free up federal funding to provide PPE and other critical resources in response to the outbreak, production has only begun to ramp-up and available supplies are currently running low. Additionally, the Strategic National Stockpile, meant to serve as a bridge for critically needed supplies, cannot sustain the surge expected from this outbreak. Without an adequate supply of these masks, emergency nurses are at constant risk of contracting this virus and possibly spreading it to their families, colleagues and patients.
As Members of Congress negotiate priorities for additional federal disaster aid packages, we urge you to stand with emergency nurses and their colleagues on the frontlines of this global pandemic and support Congress using all available authority to ensure emergency nurses and other professionals helping to manage this pandemic are protected from infection.
TAKE ACTION!
Click here to tell Congress to prioritize Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for Frontline Workers!
http://en411.ena.org/app/write-a-letter…
Sincerely,
ENA Government Relations Team
