Any advice about glasses and NHS staff masks?

[SmallFacedMaskedPeople]

I am posting about a situation with my DD and grateful for any advice! (Apologies as it's in AIBU for traffic!)

She is a first year student nurse due to start placement in January and recently went for her FFP3 mask fitting. She has inherited from me an extremely small face and very short sighted eyes with astigmatism. (She also wears hearing aids but they aren’t the issue here). The mask fitter advised her glasses won’t fit with the mask and she needs contact lenses. (The mask fits but then when she puts her glasses, they cause gaps in her mask and the air leaves)

She had her lens appointment today but the lenses are difficult for her to wear. Surely there must be some small faced HCPs out there who have the same problem? I would think a pair of smaller glasses would solve it but due to thickness of lenses we both usually need big plastic frames!

She is going to go to a different optician and try lenses again and also ask how thin they can make the lenses so she can try different frames.

Does anyone have any experience or advice re this? She is really stressed about it as the mask fitter has said she won’t be able to start her placement (4th Jan) if she can’t wear a mask!

She has done so well to get this far especially with the challenges of being deaf and studying and face masks in general! She has worked so hard and I’m so proud of her. I’m just off to pick her up so will be back this afternoon - I have told her MN is the font of all knowledge and I’m sure she will get useful advice

"Visors for staff instead of masks is an absolute no no. No one would agree to this in the clinical area"

Oh I absolutely agree! Sorry I wasn't clear, I meant in everyday interactions like lectures/meetings and with social distancing etc. (And sadly a few people are very resistant to this, plus she (or the person she is with) has had abuse in daily life when she is with someone who needs to remove their mask for her to lip read something.

It would be wonderful if sign language or even the basics like fingerspelling was taught in school. Learning a technical/medical terminology word she doesn't know would be so easy if people could just finger spell it! At least if she ever has a deaf patient it would be great for them

It's a bit weird, she's spent almost two years adjusting to masks and hearing aid/lip reading problems - then her glasses are a problem! Typical

And thank you for all good wishes too - she is very grateful and for all the useful advise too ! I know she will make a wonderful nurse (I'm a bit biased of course ) so if anyone ever meets a very small faced hearing aid wearing nurse in future you can think of this thread

I wear glasses with my FFP3 mask with no issue. It wasn't even bought up during my fit test. She doesn't need to wear contacts at all if she doesn't want to.

Second vote for the stealth mask. I have small lower face and it fits. Not ideal position for glasses, but possible.
Fittester/occy health should be able to find her something. Or fund her a hood.

The 3M masks are much better than the stealth masks.

In our trust some people with sometimes smaller faces/chin/jaw area use the washable plasticrespirators or hoods. We have been tested on several masks though as some come in and out of stock.

Thanks for all this - we will see how her re-visit goes! Fingers crossed....

No idea but I have astigmatism and I've tried all the options available and they still hurt my eyes, and then go blurry after about 5 hours wear, if I can handle that long.
I hope finding an alternative mask works, the mask fitter is clearly not a glasses wearer.

My trust are about to introduce masks with a clear section to allow lip reading. Not sure if they are FFP3 or not - we have been waiting for ages so I’ve forgotten a lot of the detail.
No advice on glasses though,

That sounds interesting @Niconacotaco - we have tried (obviously basic not NHS level) masks with clear panels, and I've even made some but they have either got steamed up or just aren't clear enough to lip read properly. It's very difficult. I've made masks with ribbon ties at the back to work around hearing aids and they have been useful.

Well anyway the good news is that DD has now been successfully fitted for a mask! She is officially Ready To Train! Same fitter but no issues this time - maybe her face has got slightly bigger So a bit of a storm in a teacup it seems!

She has her shoes (Hotter, another MN recommendation of course ) and we are going to take in her uniform this weekend as it is giant on her. She has fob watches and 8 million pens.

Thank you all so much!

@SmallFacedMaskedPeople they have been delayed for ages with procurement issues as the first few types steamed up badly or didn’t pass tests. Still haven’t arrived and haven’t seen any updates

[quote Niconacotaco]@SmallFacedMaskedPeople they have been delayed for ages with procurement issues as the first few types steamed up badly or didn’t pass tests. Still haven’t arrived and haven’t seen any updates[/quote]
Well Boris better get on and chase whichever of his mate's companies has been paid millions of pounds for them!

It really would be life changing for my DC if they could see peoples' lips and hear the sound better. It would also make it safer as people wouldn't have to remove masks to communicate (and a lot of the general public have been arses about this but that's a different thread!) Anyway small faced DD has her masks and later I am going to teach her how to take her trousers in so they fit