The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
Nurse says healthcare staff are not fitted with proper masks
A TRALEE native and qualified nurse claims the high number of healthcare workers who are being struck down by COVID-19 have not been provided with the correctly fitted type of face mask which would maximise their protection from the disease.
Cliodhna Carmody, originally from Oakpark in Tralee, has been living and working in Saudi Arabia for the last two years.
It was there that she learned about a procedure for how healthcare workers can be fitted for N95 masks – something that she claimed that she’d never even heard about when she worked in hospitals here in Ireland.
N95 masks are disposable face masks that are proven to filter the air to an industrial standard. They protect against ‘droplets’ as well as gases, and they filter airborne bacteria and viruses.
“When I worked at home and even when we were doing training, I had never, ever heard of anything – I knew what N95 masks were and I knew that we had them in Ireland – but I didn’t know that there was a specific fitting test that had to be done to make sure you had the specific and proper size of the N95 mask. I never knew that until I came over here to Saudi Arabia,” claimed Cliodhna.
Cliodhna said that when she started working in Saudi Arabia, one of the first things that she had to do was to be properly fitted for an N95 mask.
“They basically put this yellow type hood over your head and they have this spray that has this sugary taste to it. What they do is they put on one of the N95 masks that they think would be a good fit for your face.
“Then they put the hood over your head and then they spray this stuff into the hood, you need to take deep breaths, jog on the spot, jump up and down, basically to get you to breathe as much as you can. If you taste the sugary stuff in your mouth, then that means the mask is not secure and is not suited to your face,” Cliodhna continued.
“You have to go away for 30 minutes and then you come back, and they test you again with a different size, and this repeats until you find your fit.”
While this was Cliodhna’s experience in Saudi Arabia, she claimed that only for working over there, she’d never have known about needing a proper fitting mask if she’d stayed in the Irish health system.
“I now know that my size for me when I wear an N95 mask is a 3M Small. That’s the one that’s going to keep me completely protected because I’m going to be completely secure around the edges. No air is going to get in or out.”
Cliodhna said that she has been in touch with friends who are still working as doctors and nurses in Ireland, and she claimed they had never heard of the above fitting procedure.
The HSE had not replied to this newspaper’s queries at the time of going to print.