Personal protective equipment during the COVID-19 crisis: a snapshot and recommendations from the frontline of a university teaching hospital

Abstract

Aims The adequate provision of personal protective equipment (PPE) for healthcare workers has come under considerable scrutiny during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aimed to evaluate staff awareness of PPE guidance, perceptions of PPE measures, and concerns regarding PPE use while caring for COVID-19 patients. In addition, responses of doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals (OHCPs) were compared. Methods The inclusion criteria were all staff working in clinical areas of the hospital. Staff were invited to take part using a link to an online questionnaire advertised by email, posters displayed in clinical areas, and social media. Questions grouped into the three key themes - staff awareness, perceptions, and concerns - were answered using a five-point Likert scale. The Kruskal-Wallis test was used to compare results across all three groups of staff. Results Overall, 315 staff took part in our study. There was a high awareness of PPE guidance at 84.4%, but only 52.4% of staff reported adequate PPE provision. 67.9% were still keen to come to work, despite very high levels of anxiety relating to contracting COVID-19 despite wearing PPE. Doctors had significantly higher ratings for questions relating to PPE awareness compared to other staff groups, while nursing staff and OHCPs had significantly higher levels of anxiety compared to doctors in relation to PPE and contracting COVID-19 (p < 0.05 using a Kruskal-Wallis test). Conclusion We believe four recommendations are key to improve PPE measures and decrease anxiety: 1) nominated ward/department PPE champions; 2) anonymized reporting for PPE concerns; 3) formal PPE education sessions; and 4) drop-in counselling sessions for staff. We hope the insight and recommendations from this study can improve the PPE situation and maintain the health and wellbeing of the clinical work force, in order to care for COVID-19 patients safely and effectively.

Clinical Experience, Knowledge, Attitudes and Practice of Turkish Pediatric Dentists during the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Similarly, practice closures or reductions have been reported by previous studies [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23]. Some reports in the literature have demonstrated that most dentists accepted that they were at high risk and were afraid of contracting/spreading the COVID-19 virus to their families [2,18,24,25]. Nevertheless, in this study, 75% of all pediatric dentists continued to live with their families during the COVID-19 lockdown period.…”

Trauma surgery at a designated COVID-19-free site during the pandemic

“…All patients were assessed with "Amber (inpatient contact – non-AGP)" protective equipment precautions ( Figure 1 ). 6 , 10 , 11 All patients requiring follow-up or possible operative intervention were discussed with the on-call orthopaedic consultant based in the MIU. Out-of-hours patients were discussed in the following morning trauma meeting.…”

What Explains Natives and Sojourners Preventive Health Behavior in a Pandemic: Role of Media and Scientific Self-Efficacy

“…Within the hood of health psychology, various behavioral theories exist. These theories underline the role of persuasive socio-psychological constructs while conceptualizing health-concerned behavior of individuals, e.g., conceptualizing the health-protective behavior of the workforce ( Barello et al, 2020 ; Mathai, 2020 ; Almazyad et al, 2021 ) or being vaccinated to avoid serious health crisis ( Hu et al, 2017 ; Zampetakis and Melas, 2021 ). In each scenario, most of the health-protective theories underline the constructs that can help mitigate the health challenges or adopt measures to avoid health challenges (i.e., pandemic crisis).…”