A study on personal protective equipment use among health care providers, Tamil Nadu

Abstract

Background: Personal protective equipment (PPE) limits the health care workers contact with all secretions or biological products. This study was planned to find gaps between use of PPE among the health care providers (HCPs). The objective of the study was to evaluate appropriate use of PPE among health care providers in tertiary centres Tamil Nadu.Methods: A cross sectional study was done during November 2014 to October 2015 in two tertiary health care institutions. All health care providers (Doctors, nurses and technicians) who had more than one year experience and gave informed consent were included. Data collected by pretested structured questionnaire. Data analysis was done using SPSS 20v and summarized by descriptive statistics. Proportion and Chi-square was calculated at 5% α.Results: HCPs included in the study were 1060. Among them, there were 412(38.9%) doctors, 550 (51.9%) nurses and 98 (9.2%) technicians. Among 862 HCPs who work outside the operation theatre (OT) and ICU, appropriate uses of PPE were only 156 (18.1%). It was high among doctors 109 (31.5%) followed by nurses 39 (9.3%) and technicians 8 (8.2%) which was statistically significant p=0.0001. HCPs working in OT and ICU were 423 and 183 respectively. Among HCPs working in OT, appropriate use of gloves, mask, apron, gown and hair cover was 100%. But the use of goggles and shoe cover was very low. The reasons for inappropriate use of PPE was non availability 562 (78%) followed by not aware of the importance 77 (11%).Conclusions: The study showed inappropriate use and lack of adequate knowledge on infection control practices emphasizing that periodic re-training is needed.

Knowledge and Practices Regarding Doffing of Personal Protective Equipment Among Frontline Health Care Workers During COVID-19

“…The present study revealed that a significant number of medical officers did not wear impermeable gowns (p=0.001), gloves (p=0.048), face shields (0.008), goggles (p<0.001) and boots (p<0.001) compared to nurses and minor staff taken together. Contrary to the findings of this study, a study conducted in Tamil Nadu 13 revealed that doctors had significantly good compliance towards using appropriate PPE compared to nurses and technicians (p=0.0001). As highlighted by this study, the shortage of PPE supply was a huge problem in many parts of the world Table 4: Association between job category and wearing PPE Table 5: Reasons given by the participants for not wearing PPE adequately 15,16 and high demand for face masks made the face masks the most scarce PPE 16 as revealed by this study.…”

Impact of personal protective equipment use on health care workers’ physical health during the COVID-19 pandemic: A systematic review and meta-analysis

“…This scenario increases considerably the risk of adverse events such as skin reactions. The problem is further complicated by the lack of training and awareness among HCWs about the use of PPE [42,43]. During the COVID-19 pandemic, HCWs have to encounter several challenges regarding PPE such as donning (putting on) and doffing (taking off) equipment in the appropriate way, wearing PPE items for long periods of time, difficulties in communication with patients and colleagues etc.…”

Occupational risk factors associated with Covid-19 among Health Workers in a tertiary referral Hospital, Nairobi Kenya: A case control study

“…76 Similar to our study findings, inadequate IPC compliance at 6% during the pre-pandemic period 31 and an 18.1% self-reported compliance level by the health workers have been previously reported. 77 Lower PPE and IPC compliance levels have been attributed to stricter and more objective compliance and adherence observation assessment methods as compared to levels based on subjective and more biased self-reported PPE/IPC compliance assessment methods. We posit that lower overall levels of self-reported adherence to PPE/IPC measures in our study was attrubutable to the study period, 75 whereby, data collection was done when Covid-19 infections rates had waned in the study setting and coincided with progressive easing and relaxation of public health policy mandates on PPE/IPC compliance and other restrictive Covid-19 prevention protocols.…”

“…Exposure level (on-adherence to PPE/IPC) of 23.7% among the general population of HWs was selected based on a recent study. 77…”