At Risk Nurses

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Anchor lead: Nurses are at highest risk to catch Covid-19, Elizabeth Tracey reports

When it comes to healthcare professionals becoming infected with Covid-19, nurses are at highest risk, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show. Patricia Davidson, dean of the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing, says that’s just what she would have predicted.

Davidson: It’s not a surprise to me because it’s the time of exposure and the contact and the type of work nurses do that put them in the front lines. It also underscores the importance of access to adequate PPE and the training to wear that appropriately. And we know, even in the most infectious conditions such as Ebola healthcare workers are able to take care of those patients safely, if they have access to the right equipment and conditions.  :31

Davidson notes that now, as the pandemic is sweeping the country, precautions and practices to protect nurses and all healthcare workers are essential. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.