Different perspectives of doctors and nurses about the continuation of usage of some of the protection measures after the end of the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract The current pandemic pointed toward a revision of the protection measures against infectious diseases. For any given new pathogen against which human species showed no immunity, isolation and personal protection equipment proved to reduce disease transmission. In medical settings, when there is inevitable contact with infected patients, these preventive measures have undoubtedly change the process of care delivery. The study aims to investigate the opinion of the healthcare workers about the utilization of the personal protective equipment after the pandemic stops. For this purpose, we conducted an online survey about changes related to the COVID-19 pandemic. For the healthcare workers, the survey also included several questions related to personal protective equipment. A total of 512 responders, doctors, and nurses answered to the survey. We performed comparisons between these two categories of personnel using the χ test. Overall, the results show that doctors are keener to follow the recommendations for the personal protective equipment in the future; there was a statistically significant difference (p<0.001) for the usage of gloves and masks while examining febrile patients, and for the handwashing after the examination of each patient. The type of service (outpatient or inpatient procedures) and direct contact with a COVID-19 patient were other factors to modulate the responses regarding using personal protective equipment in the future. The fact that 14.06% of the responders did not consider it necessary to wash hands after examining each patient underlines the urgent need for safety education in all healthcare workers and nurses.

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Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Personal Safety Measures Adopted by Medical Practioners during the Covid-19 Pandemic

Journal of Evolution of Medical and Dental Sciences ◽

10.14260/jemds/2021/190 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (12) ◽

pp. 883-887

Author(s):

Hemapriya L ◽

Maureen Prativa Tigga ◽

Anil Kumar M.R ◽

Prathap T ◽

Neha Wali ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Personal Protective Equipment ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Healthcare Workers ◽

Online Survey ◽

Healthcare Professionals ◽

Well Being ◽

World Health ◽

Protective Equipment ◽

Personal Safety ◽

Safety Measures

BACKGROUND A novel coronavirus (now termed as SARS-CoV-2) was detected as the causative agent of severe pneumonia in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, in December 2019. Declared by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a global pandemic in March 2020, it has created profound changes in global economy and healthcare systems. This study evaluates the knowledge and practice with regard to various personal safety measures used by the healthcare professionals. METHODS We conducted a questionnaire study after obtaining approval, from the Institutional ethical committee. An online survey was conducted using a preformatted questionnaire consisting of multiple-choice questions which assessed the knowledge and practices adopted by various healthcare professionals. The survey was done between 1st and 30th of June 2020 and a total of 536 responses was analysed. RESULTS 58.4 % of the participants were females, 66 % of the healthcare workers worked at a private hospital / private medical college with 82.1 % being located in urban areas. Of the 536 respondents, 90.1 % practiced bathing immediately after returning home and 86.8 % sanitized their accessories. 86.9 % of the professionals used frequent sanitization with use of mask and gloves whereas only 12.3 % used full personal protective equipment. 58 % of females had used hydroxychloroquine as prophylaxis whereas only 41 % of males used it (statistically significant, P = 0.005). Healthcare workers in younger age group (23 - 40 years) were more likely to maintain distance with family members, and government doctors were significantly more likely to do so (P < 0.001) as compared to private practitioners. CONCLUSIONS With the medical professionals being at high risk for contracting the infection, the need to provide the healthcare professionals with adequate personal protective equipment is of utmost importance. There is also a need to maintain the well-being of the healthcare professionals as they are the weakest link in the chain. KEY WORDS Medical Practitioners, Personal Protective Equipment, Safety Measures

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Implementation of SHEA/CDC Outbreak Response Training Program Tools to Develop a Dedicated COVID-19 Hospital in Lucas County, Ohio

Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology ◽

10.1017/ice.2021.158 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-8

Author(s):

Jennifer Hanrahan ◽

Joel Kammeyer ◽

Deana Sievert ◽

Brenda Naylor ◽

Sadik Khuder ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Health System ◽

Personal Protective Equipment ◽

Healthcare Workers ◽

Care Delivery ◽

Protective Equipment ◽

Conservation Of Resources ◽

Outbreak Response ◽

Response Training ◽

Care Delivery Model ◽

Lucas County

Abstract We describe a care delivery model in which one hospital in a larger health system was dedicated exclusively to treatment of COVID-19 patients. This allowed for rapid training, conservation of resources and promoted safety of healthcare workers, demonstrated by no healthcare worker exposures due to improper personal protective equipment use.

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Clusters of Elements for Quality Assurance of Health Worker Protection Measures in Times of COVID-19 Pandemic

Administrative Sciences ◽

10.3390/admsci11020046 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (2) ◽

pp. 46

Author(s):

Bartosz Orzeł ◽

Radosław Wolniak

Keyword(s):

Quality Assurance ◽

Personal Protective Equipment ◽

Healthcare Workers ◽

Healthcare Professionals ◽

Healthcare Delivery ◽

Healthcare Sector ◽

Protective Equipment ◽

Healthcare Delivery System ◽

Protection Measures ◽

Medical Facilities

The COVID-19 (coronavirus disease) pandemic has had a significant impact on the healthcare delivery system worldwide. Many pre-pandemic norms, standards, and methods of providing medical services in most medical facilities had to be changed and re-evaluated. Many of them will likely stay changed and will probably never be provided in the same way in post-pandemic reality. The COVID-19 crisis is still ongoing and some sources say that we should be prepared for a third wave of the pandemic. The scope of the analysis conducted in this publication is related to the healthcare sector, including services and Polish healthcare professionals’ work quality during the COVID-19 crisis. The research gap, the basis for conducting new research, is the lack of clarified results analysing the quality assurance of healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is necessary to ask about healthcare professionals’ rate of personal protective equipment quality in Polish medical facilities. The result of cluster analysis will help us to know what the clusters for variables on quality assurance of protection measures for healthcare workers are. The research was carried out using a questionnaire survey on a sample of 21 medical personnel in Polish hospitals. The main findings of this publication are problems with information flow between staff and staff managers and determining appropriate zones. The quality of the personal protective equipment offered by medical facilities’ management and their availability is at an appropriate level. The publication aims to analyse the level of quality assurance of health care worker protection measures in the example of Silesian voivodeships in Poland during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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An Otorhinolaryngology Perspective Into a Hospital COVID-19 Cluster

Proceedings of Singapore Healthcare ◽

10.1177/20101058211055518 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 201010582110555

Author(s):

Jian Li Tan ◽

Ming Yann Lim ◽

Augustine Yui Ler Chai ◽

Seng Beng Yeo

Keyword(s):

Personal Protective Equipment ◽

Healthcare Workers ◽

Healthcare Facility ◽

Healthcare Institution ◽

Protective Equipment ◽

Variant Strain ◽

Essential Services ◽

The Future

In this commentary, we share our experience of a COVID-19 cluster which developed within a frontline healthcare facility designated for treating COVID-19 patients. We provide an Otorhinolaryngology perspective into the key challenges, analyses and responses. We discuss how we identified and isolated infected patients and staff, uncovered the responsible COVID-19 variant strain B1.617.2 and instituted various measures to overcome this cluster. The measures include ceasing non-essential services, limiting transfers of patients, a heightened stance of personal protective equipment, ring-fencing of staff and enhanced COVID-19 testing. With rapid hospital wide efforts, there were no new non-isolated cases from our hospital cluster 3 days after the wards were locked down. The cluster which developed on 28-April-2021 was closed on 6-Jun-2021, with 48 cases, ten of whom were healthcare workers. Some of these lessons may be useful for consideration should another healthcare institution face a similar crisis in the future.

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Blood Biomarkers for Assessing Headaches in Healthcare Workers after Wearing Biological Personal Protective Equipment in a COVID-19 Field Hospital

Journal of Personalized Medicine ◽

10.3390/jpm11010027 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

pp. 27

Author(s):

Francisco Martín-Rodríguez ◽

Raúl López-Izquierdo ◽

Raquel M. Portillo Rubiales ◽

Laura N. Fadrique Millán ◽

Virginia Carbajosa Rodríguez ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Personal Protective Equipment ◽

Disease Transmission ◽

Healthcare Workers ◽

De Novo ◽

Area Under The Curve ◽

Blood Analysis ◽

Protective Equipment ◽

Blood Biomarkers ◽

Field Hospital ◽

Treatment Unit

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has led to a pandemic, which among other things, has highlighted biosafety as a key cornerstone in the management of disease transmission. The aim of this work was to analyze the role played by different blood biomarkers in predicting the appearance of headaches in healthcare workers wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) in a COVID-19 treatment unit. A prospective cohort study of 38 healthcare workers was performed during April 2020. Blood analysis, performed just before the start of a 4 hour shift, was carried out on all volunteers equipped with PPE. At the end of their shifts and after decontamination, they were asked if they had suffered from headache in order to obtain a binary outcome. The baseline creatinine value reflected a specific odds ratio of 241.36 (95% CI: 2.50–23,295.43; p = 0.019) and an area under the curve (AUC) value of 0.737 (95%CI: 0.57–0.90; p < 0.01). Blood creatinine is a good candidate for predicting the appearance of a de novo headache in healthcare workers after wearing PPE for four hours in a COVID-19 unit.

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Protecting Healthcare Workers From COVID-19 and the Assaulting Society: Indian Perspective

Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Research ◽

10.18502/pbr.v6i(s1).4395 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Nileswar Das ◽

Priyanka Mishra

Keyword(s):

Personal Protective Equipment ◽

Healthcare Workers ◽

Protective Equipment ◽

The Novel ◽

The Future ◽

Public Behavior ◽

Novel Coronavirus ◽

Indian Perspective

The novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) pandemic has created a massive burden on Healthcare Workers (HCWs). Working in a potentially infectious environment, HCWs are at higher risk of physical and psychological illnesses. However, providing adequate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) is necessary to protect HCWs from rising violence in the community due to fear, frustration, and stigma. The authors highlighted this important yet relatively underresearched entity of public behavior that demands further studies in the future.

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Challenges of limited reuse and extended use of N95 filtering facepiece respirators: Lesson learnt from COVID-19 pandemic in Mumbai, India

International Journal of Occupational Safety and Health ◽

10.3126/ijosh.v11i2.37253 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (2) ◽

pp. 116-120

Author(s):

Kinjal P Patel ◽

Trupti Carval

Keyword(s):

Personal Protective Equipment ◽

Lower Risk ◽

Initial Phase ◽

Healthcare Workers ◽

Compliance Rate ◽

Preventive Measure ◽

Protective Equipment ◽

The Future ◽

Risk Areas

Introduction: Usage of personal protective equipment, which includes N95 filtering face piece respirators (FFRs), was the major preventive measure for healthcare workers to control COVID-19 transmission. However, a global shortage of N95 FFRs was observed worldwide during initial phase of pandemic. Reusing mask was the only strategy and various decontamination methods were suggested. The main objective of the study was to evaluate the compliance rate of limited reuse and extended use policy implemented in hospital. Methods: Limited reuse and extended use policy of N95 FFRs was implemented for one month in lower risk areas. Compliance to policy was checked by questionnaires asked to 100 healthcare workers verbally and challenges faced by them were noted. Results: It was observed that overall compliance to policy was 80%. Major reasons of non-compliance were suffocation, followed by smell from mask and loosened strips. Conclusion: Limited reuse and extended use method was successfully used as a bridge until sufficient N95 FFRs were not available although effective decontamination method must be established in hospitals to prepare ourselves for the future pandemics.

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Understanding the physiological effects of wearing enhanced personal protective equipment while providing patient care

Journal of Emergency Management ◽

10.5055/jem.2019.0444 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 17 (6) ◽

pp. 517-521 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Julie Bulson, DNP, MPA, RN, NE-BC ◽

Kenneth Shawl, BBA, RRT, NHDP-BC

Keyword(s):

Blood Pressure ◽

Body Temperature ◽

Oxygen Saturation ◽

Patient Care ◽

Personal Protective Equipment ◽

Healthcare Workers ◽

Vital Signs ◽

Protective Equipment ◽

Physiological Effects ◽

Significant Difference

Purpose: There is a lack of information regarding the physiological effects of healthcare workers performing patient care while wearing enhanced personal protective equipment (PPE). This study aimed to provide foundational data necessary to maintain the health and safety of healthcare workers while performing tasks wearing enhanced PPE related to patient care in a biocontainment unit.Design and method: This study is a descriptive study evaluating the physiological effects of conducting patient care while wearing enhanced PPE. Participant vital signs (blood pressure, body temperature, and oxygen saturation) were monitored pre-donning, throughout the transport, and post-doffing.Results: There is no statistically significant difference in the physiological measurements of any of the participants. The results consisted of: blood pressure (systolic p = 0.0659; diastolic p = 0.94345); oxygen saturation (p = 0.6233); and orally derived body temperature (p = 0.1093). Physical balance was subjectively measured by both the participant and the trained observer during the donning and doffing process. Results show no visible difference in balance between the donning period and the doffing period. Conclusion: This study demonstrated there were no physiological changes to the healthcare workers in this study performing patient care activities during patient transport and in a biocontainment unit while wearing the provided enhanced PPE. However, limitations of this study include: (1) it was conducted at one location within the Midwest; (2) with a small number of participants; and (3) only the enhanced ensemble of PPE was worn during testing. Therefore, the results may not be generalizable to other locations or levels of PPE.Clinical relevance: This study will help to guide assessment standards for healthcare workers providing care while wearing enhanced level PPE.

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Personal protective equipment use by healthcare workers in intensive care unit during the early phase of COVID-19 pandemic in Italy: a secondary analysis of the PPE-SAFE survey

Therapeutic Advances in Infectious Disease ◽

10.1177/2049936121998562 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 8 ◽

pp. 204993612199856

Author(s):

Mariachiara Ippolito ◽

Mahesh Ramanan ◽

Davide Bellina ◽

Giulia Catalisano ◽

Pasquale Iozzo ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Intensive Care Unit ◽

Intensive Care ◽

Personal Protective Equipment ◽

Healthcare Workers ◽

Secondary Analysis ◽

International Study ◽

Western Country ◽

Protective Equipment ◽

Occupational Infection ◽

Significant Difference

Background: Italy was the first Western country to be heavily affected by COVID-19. Healthcare workers (HCWs) were exposed to a high risk of occupational infection, partially due to insufficient personal protective equipment (PPE) supplies. This study aimed to describe the practices, availability, training, confidence in PPE use and the adverse effects due to extended PPE use, as reported by HCWs in Italy. We also aimed to provide a comparison between Italian data and those from other countries. Methods: This study was a secondary analysis of a previously published international study, the PPE-SAFE Survey, conducted in April 2020. Data were analysed from the original study database. Results: We analysed the responses from 380 healthcare workers based in Italy, out of the 2711 respondents to the international survey. Among the Italian respondents, FFP2 and FFP3 respirators or equivalent were the most used masks for routine tasks (respectively 188/380, 50%; and 163/380, 43%). The median time of wearing PPE without taking a break was 5 h [interquartile range (IQR) 4–6], with statistically significant difference from other countries [median 4 h (IQR 2–5) p < 0.0001]. In Italy, 249 out of 380 (65%) HCWs had never performed a formal fit test for a N95 mask or equivalent and 91/380 (24%) never had a partner for donning and doffing procedures. Most of the respondents (299/380, 79%) had received formal training in PPE use at any time. Conclusion: Most of the surveyed Italian HCWs reported working at above usual capacity, long shifts with PPE without breaks and routine use in intensive care unit of aerosol protection (e.g. FFP2/FFP3), hazmat suits and face shields/visors. The correct adherence to safety procedures (e.g. donning/doffing in pairs, performing fit test) has substantial scope for improvement in the future.

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Adherence to Personal Protective Equipment Guidelines During the COVID-19 Pandemic Among Healthcare Personnel in the United States

Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness ◽

10.1017/dmp.2021.12 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-8

Author(s):

Oliver A. Darwish ◽

Ayushi Aggarwal ◽

Mehran Karvar ◽

Chenhao Ma ◽

Valentin Haug ◽

...

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

South Carolina ◽

Personal Protective Equipment ◽

Healthcare Workers ◽

Online Survey ◽

The United States ◽

Healthcare Personnel ◽

Protective Equipment ◽

Cdc Guidelines ◽

Frontline Healthcare Workers

Abstract Objectives: Protecting frontline healthcare workers with personal protective equipment (PPE) is critical during the COVID pandemic. Through an online survey, we demonstrated variable adherence to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) PPE guidelines among health care personnel (HCP). Methods: CDC guidelines for optimal and acceptable PPE usage in common situations faced by frontline healthcare workers were referenced to create a short online survey. The survey was distributed to national, statewide, and local professional organizations across the United States and to HCP using a snowball sampling technique. Responses were collected between June 15 and July 17, 2020. Results: 2245 responses were received from doctors, nurses, midwives, paramedics, and medical technicians in 44 states. Eight states with n>20 (Arizona, California, Colorado, Louisiana, Oregon, South Carolina, Texas, and Washington) and a total of 436 responses are included in the quantitative analysis. Adherence to CDC guidelines was observed to be highest in the scenario of patient contact when COVID was not suspected (86.47%) and lowest when carrying out aerosol generating procedures (AGPs) (42.47%). Conclusions: Further research is urgently needed to identify the reasons underlying variability between professions and regions to pinpoint strategies for maximizing adherence and improving the safety of HCPs.

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