LONGVIEW, Texas —
People all over the nation are coming together to help those in need during COVID-19, that includes making masks for medical workers.
"A lot of the staff like a lot of facilities are having to reuse a paper surgical mask multiple days a week and keep the same mask because there's just so short of a supply," Kelli Burton, Director of Marketing and a Registered Nurse at Hospitality Health ER in Longview, said.
There's a critical shortage in personal protective equipment for health care workers across the nation. The shortage is something Burton says they saw coming.
"So we started, at our facility, we have been getting prepared and precautions in place for the last two months in preparation for this,” Burton said. “Even doing that the masks are at a shortage, and also wearing them 12-hour shifts a day they're not comfortable."
Burton, also a seamstress, decided to pull out her sewing machines and get to work.
“Our Medical Director, and Vice President, were trying to figure out a way to make masks since there is short supply at our facility and in the country right now," Burton said. “So she contacted me and we talked about it and I’m a seamstress so I got out my sewing machines and tried a bunch of different templates last week, about 10 different ones.”
Burton created masks using a filter and cotton material.
She then posted a tutorial on Hospitality Health ER’s Facebook page. The tutorial provides step by step instructions in the video, and there is also a link to the pattern in a PDF file that you can print off.
"So in these are the ear straps, the back part, so the lining opens up where you can fit a filter in,” Burton said holding up the mask in an interview. “You could use a coffee filter, a tissue, any material that you use that makes up a surgical mask."
So far she's had numerous people reach out. Her goal, 1000's of masks for nurses and doctors.
"I think that's just what we have to remember is that we're all in this together,” Burton said. “This is a new thing that we all are learning as we go. We haven't been through this before and so we have to be there for each other."
The CDC provides guidelines on Optimizing the Supply of Facemasks.