If you hop on social media these days – or even watch the news – it’s hard not to come across conflicting opinions regarding the effectiveness of wearing masks to protect ourselves from the spread of COVID-19.
At Texas Children’s, our employees, staff, patients, families and visitors, are required to wear masks at our health care facilities for one reason – it is a simple and effective way to stop the spread of germs.
“There is numerous scientific research that touts the effectiveness of mask wearing to reduce a person’s risk of contracting or transmitting the virus,” said Chief Safety Officer Dr. Joan Shook. “It is too risky to let our guard down right now, particularly when we are supposed to care for our patients who need us the most.”
While different masks provide different levels of protection, Shook says wearing a mask covering protects everybody around you. Surgical or procedural masks, like the ones distributed at our employee screening check-in locations, provide a protective barrier that prevents respiratory droplets from being easily spread from person to person. The N-95 masks, which are required to be worn by health care staff during aerosol-producing procedures (like intubation) and when providing care to COVID-19 positive patients, have a thicker mesh and fit more tightly around the nose and mouth, providing an additional layer of respiratory protection.
In this video below, Texas Children’s employees and staff share why they wear a face mask.
With the mandatory mask order now in effect across Texas requiring face masks to be worn in public, we must do our part at Texas Children’s to protect ourselves and each other. In addition to wearing a face mask, we must:
- Wash our hands frequently
- Watch our distance – stay at least 6 feet from others
- Hold ourselves and each other accountable
- Stay home when we’re not feeling well.
“It is important that we all continue to fully comply with the safety precautions that have proven successful at combatting this pandemic not just at work, but in our personal lives as well,” Shook said. “While some people may feel it is their right to wear or not wear a face mask in public – as we have seen many times on the news and in social media – I believe everyone has a right to feel safe and protected. When we are masked, we are less likely to get sick, and more likely to reduce the community spread of COVID-19.”
When wearing a face mask at work and in public places, the mask should cover your mouth and nose completely and fit securely to your face to maximize its effectiveness. Click here to view this infographic on ways you should and shouldn’t be using your face mask.
Connecting with our patients
Face masks and other personal protective equipment (PPE) worn by staff to keep everyone safe during the pandemic has made it challenging to connect with patients and add that extra dose of warmth a smile often brings to a high-stress situation.
“Anxiety levels are typically pretty high when patients and families walk into our hospital,” said Diane Kaulen, manager of the Texas Children’s Child Life Department. “COVID-19 has added a whole new level to that, but Texas Children’s is finding creative ways to make our patients and families feel as comfortable as possible during their stay with us.”
To give patients an idea of what they look like without PPE, some Child Life specialists are wearing buttons donned with pictures of their faces. Others are reframing a child’s perspective of PPE, placing stickers of beloved characters on face shields and forming connections by asking patients if they think we look like astronauts or scuba divers or a personality of their own imagination.
Child Life Specialist Chandler Townsend’s personal favorite was when a child she was playing with told her she looked like “Forky,” the very personality that was on the coloring page they were working with.
“We here at Texas Children’s are finding innovative ways to meet the holistic needs of the hospitalized child alongside our health care teammates,” Townsend said. “No matter a patient’s level of visible anxiety, we are cognizant that there is more going on than just hospitalization/diagnoses and we continue to validate that.”
Basic comforting tools and behaviors such as physically getting down to a child’s level when you are talking to them, introducing yourself and talking through PPE and why staff is wearing it goes a long way, said Audrey McKim, an Activity Coordinator with Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology Centers.
“I try to explain that we might be in goggles, masks and shields but those protections let us walk in their door and provide support in the ways pediatric oncology patients need,” McKim said. “This is so important in a time when so many doors shuttered.”
View a photo gallery below of the face buttons that Child Life team members are wearing to connect with patients during the pandemic.
