Personal protective equipment and testing during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

COVID-19 is caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrom coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus. The virus poses specific problems for cardiac nurses, with nurses being at the frontline of healthcare delivery. These issues not only involve treating and caring for cardiac patients with the virus, but also include the need to continue routine cardiac interventions during the pandemic. Many cardiac interventions are invasive, requiring close patient contact. As such, these interventions pose significant infection risks. To mitigate against these risks, cardiac nurses should follow established infection control guidelines and wear personal protective equipment where appropriate. Ongoing research is also demonstrating the usefulness of COVID-19 testing, the results of which will aid in the detection of the virus and enable any self-isolating nurses to return to work, where appropriate.

Assessment of health equity consideration in masking/PPE policies to contain COVID-19 using PROGRESS-plus framework: a systematic review

“…Several policy documents had mentioned multiple PROGRESS-Plus components. Specifically, 17 policy documents (8.95%) mentioned two components of PROGRESS-Plus [ 28 , 38 , 39 , 41 , 47 , 52 , 57 , 59 , 82 , 92 , 110 , 111 , 122 , 127 , 137 , 185 , 233 ] and 3 policy documents (1.58%) mentioned more than two components of the PROGRESS-plus framework [ 61 , 208 , 209 ] (Fig. 4 ).…”

“…Second, the strength of rationale to support inclusion of “PROGRESS-plus” factor in a policy document was analyzed. Of all the policy documents having equity component, 71 policy documents (37.37%) explicitly provided the evidence for inclusion of PROGRESS-Plus component [ 25 , 27 , 28 , 34 , 36 – 38 , 41 , 42 , 49 , 58 – 61 , 63 , 64 , 66 , 71 , 74 – 77 , 82 , 86 , 91 – 93 , 104 – 106 , 111 , 112 , 114 , 121 , 122 , 124 , 126 , 127 , 130 , 131 , 134 – 137 , 144 , 146 , 148 , 155 , 159 , 160 , 166 , 167 , 171 , 176 , 177 , 180 , 182 , 185 , 190 , 192 , 193 , 197 , 201 , 206 – 208 , 226 , 227 , 231 , 233 , 234 ] whereas rest did not provide any rationale for inclusion of PROGRESS-Plus component [ 23 , 26 , 29 – ...…”

“…Among these 71 policy documents, 47 were conducted in HIC [ 28 , 37 , 38 , 42 , 49 , 58 , 60 , 61 , 63 , 71 , 74 , 76 , 77 , 82 , 86 , 91 – 93 , 104 – 106 , 112 , 121 , 122 , 124 , 127 , 130 , 135 , 137 , 144 , 148 , 159 , 167 , 171 , 176 , 180 , 182 , 185 , 190 , 192 , 193 , 197 , 201 , 206 , 207 , 226 , 233 ], 10 were conducted in LMIC [ 27 , 36 , 64 , 111 , 114 , 136 , 160 , 227 , 231 , 234 ] and 14 were conducted in both HIC and LMIC [ 25 , 34 , 41 , 59 , 66 , 75 , 126 , 131 , 134 , 146 , 155 , 166 , 177 ...…”