It is the collective responsibility of everyone to ensure that COVID prevention measures are adopted, but the healthcare professionals are the ones highly responsible to let people know, understand, and diligently follow these measures.
An important part of the nursing profession involves educating the patients to take care of themselves. The students are taught the importance of educating patients while completing nursing education. This is because nursing professionals in particular spend the maximum amount of time with the patients and their families.
With the spread of COVID, nurses have been promoting general COVID prevention measures to ensure the safety of everyone. Listed below are the commonly promoted measures.
1. Washing hands: One of the first few things that the W.H.O. recommended to nurses for preventing COVID was washing hands. Most people touch a variety of things from mobile phones to bathroom doors. These surfaces can become a reason to carry the COVID-19 virus.
For this reason, nurses instruct people to wash hands with soap and water as the most desirable and effective way to prevent COVID-19. They also ask people to use sanitizer in places where there is no access to soap and water.
2. Coughing and Sneezing in Bent Elbows: It is recommended to cover your nose and mouth while coughing or sneezing. One must also throw the used tissues in the trash. On the other hand, in case one does not have a tissue then it is best to cough or sneeze into your elbow, not the hands.
This is also an important COVID-19 preventive measure because coughing or sneezing into your bent elbow catches the droplets and stops them from getting on the hands.
3. Not touching Eyes, Nose, and Mouth: From picking up objects to turning door knobs, most people are constantly touching many surfaces contaminated with pathogens. These pathogens can be easily picked up with our hands and can also get into the body through the mucous membrane on the eyes, nose, and mouth which can further act as a pathway to the throat and lungs.
The Corona Virus is believed to spread mostly by inhaling droplets released when infected individual coughs or sneezes. However, these droplets can also easily land on surfaces that are commonly touched with hands.
4. Avoiding Close Contact With Sick People: To ensure that healthcare facilities and even the homes of patients are free from the Coronavirus, the nurses instruct people to always stay away from people who are sick.
It is advised to maintain a distance of 6 feet from the people who have some kind of infection and even the ones outside of the home. Keeping this distance is particularly important for people who are at risk of getting the disease.
5. Disinfecting Frequently Touched Surfaces: The nature of the Corona Virus is such that it is difficult to tell how the virus landed upon a surface. Therefore, one of the best courses of action for preventing the spread of this virus is by disinfecting the surfaces that are touched often.
Regular household cleaning and disinfection products can effectively help in getting rid of the virus from the surfaces. For cleaning the surfaces suspected with or confirmed with COVID-19, virucidal disinfectants such as 0.05% Sodium Hypochlorite (NaCIO) and ethanol products should be used.
Conclusion:
Nurses act as a guide for patients. It is one of the foremost responsibilities of nursing professionals to ensure that people follow the general COVID preventive measures properly.
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