Multicare Health's staff training nurses how to mobilize for Ebola while staying safe

AUBURN -- The MultiCare Health System in the South Sound is scrambling to make sure it's nurses and medical staff are fully prepared for the Ebola virus.

The company's training staff has dropped what they were doing this week, and are going to clinics and ERs all over the area to teach nurses how to protect themselves.

There are more then 11,000 workers in MultiCare system.



In a cramped break room at the Auburn Medical Center, ER nurse Shawna Harding practiced donning protective gear, including a full face mask that uses negative air flow to keep any particles from getting inside the gear.

"It actually feels quite comfortable," said Harding. "It’s pretty light but I feel quite protected right now."

Nikki Graham, a MultiCare educator, said, "Nurses are afraid, and they’re worried and that’s why we dropped everything and said, let us teach this because we want everyone to feel comfortable taking care of patients."

Graham says the hospital system's protocol goes beyond what the CDC recommends, to keep nurses as safe as possible, and they put an emphasis on how to take the protective gear off properly to lower the risk of exposure.

"All of the educators are nurses and we feel like our job is to take care of the nurses."