Articles: personal-protective-equipment.
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J Infect Dev Ctries · Nov 2020
Multicenter StudyWhat influences the infection of COVID-19 in healthcare workers?
The outbreak of COVID-19 has spread worldwide. The evidence about risk factors of healthcare workers who infected COVID-19 is limited. This study aims to describe characteristics and influencing factors of the COVID-19 infection in healthcare workers. ⋯ The use of protective equipment, emotions and satisfactions to hospital responses are key COVID-19-infected factors. The awareness, the supply and the use of protective equipment, the layout of departments and other environmental and management factors should be strictly equipped. In addition, hospitals should also pay attention to emotions and satisfaction of healthcare workers.
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The spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) around the world has put a heavy burden on human society and is also a great challenge facing medical staff. This study aimed to assess the difficulties faced by health care personnel (HCP) in using personal protective equipment (PPE) in clinical practice during the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan, China. One hundred twenty medical staff from the First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University presented to the Wuhan First Hospital to provide medical assistance, from whom 20 HCP volunteered to participate in a focus group discussion attended by infection control nurse leaders. ⋯ Observed difficulties included inappropriate PPE sizes, the design of the PPE and its complexity of use, doubts related to the quality and effectiveness of PPE, potential risks during doffing, space layout between clean and contaminated area, and poor comfort with PPE use. Other factors, such as the support environment, management, processes, preparedness, HCP, and equipment can also have a positive or negative impact on the use of PPE. Future efforts to optimize PPE use should focus on strengthening training for HCP using real items for increasing compliance with standardized protocols, improving PPE design, and performing further research on the risks, benefits, and best practices of PPE use.
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Disaster Med Public Health Prep · Nov 2020
Symptoms Associated With Personal Protective Equipment Among Frontline Health Care Professionals During the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Personal protective equipment (PPE) use is frequently construed as inconvenient and disturbing by health care professionals (HCPs). We hypothesized that new-onset symptoms among HCPs may be associated with extended use of PPE and aimed to investigate risk factors related with new-onset symptoms. In addition, the effects of new-onset symptoms on working performance were evaluated. ⋯ Hospitals should take the necessary precautions (eg, shorter shifts and more frequent breaks) to prevent symptoms associated with PPE and ensure that HCPs comply with these precautions.