scope. The video
laryngoscope also
allows for a quick
first-pass intubation,
which helps to avoid a
patient's reflexive
coughing that can
spread the virus
throughout the room.
Once the airway is
secured, Ms. Marquis
Farrar peels off the
gown, gloves, face
shield, and outer mask.
She reapplies the lay-
ers before extubation,
during which risks of coughing are increased.
Elective surgeries are beginning to ramp up at Denver (Colo.)
Children's Hospital, according to Orthopedics Service Line Leader Heidi
Manzanares, BSN, BS, RN. She's been forced to wait outside the OR
with other members of the surgical team for 20 minutes until anesthesia
providers intubate patients and secure the airway. There's been confu-
sion among her colleagues about the effectiveness of COVID-19 testing
and whether the PPE they wear during cases is enough to protect them
from exposure to the virus.
The pressure political leaders are feeling to reopen state economies
and hospital administrators are feeling to reopen ORs to elective pro-
cedures has trickled down to the frontlines of care. Word can come
down that it's safe to proceed with elective cases, but it's the nurses,
surgeons and anesthesia providers who put themselves in harm's way
M A Y 2 0 2 0 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y. N E T • 3 5
• TEAM PLAYERS Andrea Marquis Farrar, CRNA (left), and Andrea Dyer, MSN, RN,
were part of the COVID-19 response at Central Maine Medical Center.
