Articles: personal-protective-equipment.
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Frontiers in psychiatry · Jan 2020
Perceived Risk and Protection From Infection and Depressive Symptoms Among Healthcare Workers in Mainland China and Hong Kong During COVID-19.
Psychological health among healthcare workers (HCWs) has become a major concern since the COVID-19 outbreak. HCWs perceived risks of contracting COVID-19, in relation to depression were investigated. It was hypothesized that perceived high risk of contracting COVID-19 (close contact with cases, inadequate provision of personal protective equipment, insufficient infection control training, and presence of symptoms) would be significant predictors of depression. ⋯ The strongest significant risk factors for depression, after adjustment, were HCWs who reported the greatest extent of feeling susceptible to contracting COVID-19 and those who reported the greatest difficulty obtaining face masks. HCWs whose family/peers greatly encouraged face mask use had lower prevalence of depression. Access to adequate supplies of personal protective equipment is essential for the psychological health of HCWs working in stressful environments, through potentially easing their perceptions of vulnerability to COVID-19.
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Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) is required to safely work with biological agents of bacterial (i.e. Mycobacterium tuberculosis) or viral origin (Ebola and SARS). COVID-19 pandemic especially has created unforeseen public health challenges including a global shortage of PPE needed for the safety of health care workers (HCWs). Although sufficient stocks of PPE are currently available, their critical shortage may develop soon due to increase in demand and depletion of existing supply lines. To empower our HCWs and ensure their continued protection, proactive measures are urgently required to develop procedures to safely decontaminate the PPEs to allow their "selective reuse" during contingency situations. ⋯ Our study, therefore, successfully establishes the utility of VHP to effectively disinfect PPE for a possible reuse as per the requirements. VHP treatment did not damage coveralls, cause physical deformity and also did not alter fabric architecture of melt blown layer. We observed that disinfection process was successful consistently and therefore believe that the VHP-based decontamination model will have a universal applicability and utility. This process can be easily and economically scaled up and can be instrumental in easing global PPE shortages in any biosafety facility or in health care settings during pandemic situation such as COVID-19.
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A severe public health crisis has been declared worldwide since coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was classified as a pandemic of acute respiratory infectious disease by the World Health Organisation (WHO). China has taken strict measures to curb the spread of the disease to save lives, and has managed to control the outbreak. ⋯ Nosocomial infection prevention and control concepts and measures relating to dental diagnosis and treatment are critically checked in the hospital. Our experiences in handling this situation are shared here and may have wide-ranging implications for infection prevention and control (IPC) for COVID-19 in dental practices worldwide.
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The global coronavirus disease (COVID)-19 pandemic has led to an international shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE), with traditional supply chains unable to cope with the significant demand leading to critical shortfalls. A number of open and crowdsourcing initiatives have sought to address this shortfall by producing equipment such as protective face shields using additive manufacturing techniques such as fused filament fabrication (FFF). ⋯ LSAM offers significant advantages over other additive manufacturing technologies in bridge manufacturing scenarios as a true transition between prototypes and mass production techniques such as injection molding. In the context of production of COVID-19 face shields, the ability to produce the optimized components in under 5 min compared to what would typically take 1 - 2 h using another additive manufacturing technologies meant that significant production volume could be achieved rapidly with minimal staffing.
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Transmission of an infectious agent requires a source of infection, a mode of transmission, and a vulnerable host. The most important interventions for preventing infection transmission are hand hygiene and use of standard precautions for all patients. ⋯ This article discusses key takeaways from the "AORN guideline for transmission-based precautions," including using standard precautions; wearing personal protective equipment when exposure to blood, body fluids, or other potentially infectious materials is anticipated; and using contact precautions during care of patients known or suspected to be infected or colonized with pathogens transmitted by direct or indirect contact. Perioperative RNs should review the complete guideline for additional information and for guidance when writing and updating policies and procedures.