Personal Protective Equipment in Hospital Nursing Care: A Scoping Review

Abstract

Objective: to analyze the scientific production on the use of Personal Protective Equipment by Nursing professionals during the care provided in the hospital environment. Method: this is a scoping review, based on the 2020 Joanna Briggs Institute Manual and guided by PRISMA-PCR. PUBMED, EMBASE, CINAHL, LILACS, BDENF, SCOPUS and WEB of SCIENCE were used as databases, choosing a search period corresponding to the last 20 years. Data collection took place from September to October 2021. The study protocol is available in the Open Science Framework: https://osf.io/7d8q9/files/. Studies on the use of Personal Protective Equipment in direct care provided by the Nursing team in hospitals were included; and those that addressed reviews, theses and dissertations in other settings were excluded, as well as studies not available in full. Results: the sample consisted of 26 documents. The items most cited and with the highest adherence in the studies were procedure gloves, while use of goggles was the least mentioned. The following stand out among the factors that facilitate PPE use by nurses: interpersonal relationships, knowledge, workload, standardization of guidelines, and participation of the care team in management decisions. Conclusion: the need to educate the professionals using behavioral knowledge as a strategy, as well as maintenance of communication in the sectors to avoid contamination, the influence of workload and the standardization of guidelines are necessary in the hospital health services to increase health professionals' engagement towards the biosafety practices.