The sourcing and use of high physical resemblance personal protective equipment to train healthcare workers, improve confidence and conserve medical-grade equipment.

2021-06

Bumpstead, S

Lim, Z J

Kuhn, L

Flynn, D

Bakos, C-L

Potter, E

Egerton-Warburton, D

COVID-19

Healthcare worker

Infection transmission

Occupational safety

Personal protective equipment (PPE)

Simulation training

Journal Article

10.1016/j.jhin.2021.04.003

Personal protective equipment (PPE) is essential for healthcare worker (HCW) safety. Conservation of PPE for clinical use during the COVID-19 pandemic reduced its availability for training, necessitating an innovative approach to sourcing high physical resemblance PPE (HPR-PPE). We present a case study of crowd-sourcing of HPR-PPE to train HCWs. Survey results indicated that HPR-PPE enabled high-fidelity practise of PPE application and removal, aided procedure recall, improved user confidence and was sufficiently similar to medical-grade PPE. HPR-PPE provided a novel and cost-effective alternative. We also demonstrated that medical-grade PPE can be sourced from non-medical institutions and businesses during a pandemic.

link

The Journal of Hospital Infection 2021; 112: 104-107

The Journal of Hospital Infection