Nursing homes have been put on the bottom of the totem pole. They are desperate for PPE from a lot of nurses I have spoken to. I just spoke to one nurse I know and they have only 2 non medical N95 masks from their Maintenance department, which they are using over and over again to care for 2 positive patients. They have put in requests for PPE and masks over a week ago and still have not been delivered the needed supplies and this is in MA which is usually pretty good, but the supplies are going to the hospitals first. There really need POC testing for staff coming in and out too, once the machines are ramped up. The residents in nursing homes are the most vulnerable and the nursing homes are breeding grounds for an outbreak and deaths. I don’t think they were a priority like they should have been early on. A lot of nurses and staff are also extremely fearful and once there is a few cases in a nursing home I have heard of stories of staff calling out, or not showing up to work and some even refusing to care for any positive patients, which really can constitute as patient abandonment. It makes it even more fearful when you don’t have enough PPE and the appropriate PPE.
