Necessary PPE for Healthcare Workers during the Covid-19 Pandemic
Abstract
Healthcare workers are people whose responsibility is to take care of the sick irrespective of their conditions and diseases. For the infectious conditions, they require protective gear that would ensure they do not become infected by the patients. The personal protective equipment is the name given to all the equipment that healthcare workers require to put on while taking care of infectious patients, including coronavirus patients. The WHO and CDC have provided the guidelines and list of PPE that are necessary when taking care of the COVID patients. This appropriate PPE includes the masks, gloves, gowns, aprons and boots.
Necessary PPE for Healthcare Workers during the Covid-19 Pandemic
Healthcare workers are people whose responsibility is to take care of the sick irrespective of their conditions and diseases. They work to ensure that the sick get well or reduce the extent of the suffering of the terminally ill cases like those of metastatic cancers. In the same spirit, those patients who are diagnosed with infectious conditions are also part of the patients who are to care for by healthcare workers. If they are not properly handled, the healthcare workers can end up being infected too by the infectious disease from the patient they are taking care of (https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-nCoV/index.html). This is why they would need to have protective gear that enables them to take care of such patients and at the same time, protect themselves. Since the outbreak of the coronavirus, the healthcare workers, including doctors, nurses, physiotherapist s and other cadres, have been taking care of the infected patients. They cannot neglect them despite posing the danger of being infected. This is why they need protective gear more than ever.
Personal protective equipment sums up the equipment that healthcare workers need to don when taking care of infected patients with COVID-19. They cannot follow up some guidelines such as social distancing since they have to interact with their patients like when providing medication to them. Without this equipment, the infection rate at the healthcare facilities would be more, and this would mean fewer workers available to provide their much-needed services to the patients. This is due to the fact that they would be either quarantined and others may succumb to the infection, and this would mean no one to take care of the very sick in the healthcare facilities (https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019). World Health Organization (WHO) and Center for Disease Control (CDC) are two major organizations that have provided the protocol to be followed regarding the fight against COVID-19 pandemic. The two bodies have advised on the necessary PPE that every healthcare worker who is taking care of the COVID-19 patients should have. This essay explores the necessary PPE that healthcare workers need to have and use when taking care of COVID-19 patients.
Gloves
This forms part of the necessary personal protective equipment for the healthcare workers taking care of the sick, especially those with COVID-19. It is equipment that is worn on the hands of the healthcare worker when working to protect them from being infected (Ranney et al., 2020). There are various types of gloves that are available for use in the hospital setting. There are the normal latex gloves and surgical gloves. The latex gloves are worn when working in places that do not involve risky contact with an infectious surface. This includes while dusting and washing surfaces that have not contaminated with the infectious virus. Despite the CDC admitting that the various is spread mostly through respiratory droplets, there is a chance that surfaces would also be a means of transmission hence the need to glove on when working (Livingston et al., 2020). Those who are working in isolated facilities and areas where only COVID-19 patients are being given medical care, they have to wear protective gloves, and most of them are surgical gloves. Since the doctors and nurses have to interact with these patients including touching them, then gloves become a necessity for them to protect themselves from being infected.
Masks
Health experts have shown that COVID-19 is spread through respiratory droplets as the main mode of transmission. This has occasioned the need for social distancing so that people do not infect one another when interacting (Chen & Huang, 2020). However, healthcare workers while working cannot afford to observe social distancing with their patients. They, therefore, need to have the protective equipment that would ensure that they do not get infected by the patients they are taking care of (Ng et al., 2020). This is why the CDC and WHO recommended the use of masks as protective equipment for the healthcare workers taking care of COVID-19 patients. The mask should cover both the mouth and the nose as these are the potential areas of the face where droplets can emanate from especially when sneezing or even having flu. Initial research from Chinese medical experts showed that the rate of transmission from one person to another wearing mask decreased by more than 50% (Livingston et al., 2020). It is therefore imperative that all healthcare workers put on masks when taking care of the COVID-19 patients. In fact, face masks have become a rare commodity in the US following the outbreak of the coronavirus hence the need to procure and produce more not only for the healthcare workers but also for the general public. The N95 masks are the one most recommended for the frontline healthcare workers taking care of the infected patients.
Gowns and Aprons
In addition to masks and gloves, the healthcare workers need gowns and aprons to protect themselves from bodily fluids and other contaminated fluids that can be infectious. They cover the whole body for the healthcare worker while attending the patients with COVID-19. According to Chen and Huang (2020), infectious disease experts recommend that those involved in the treatment and management of the patients suffering from infectious conditions; they should put on gowns and aprons protective equipment. This is no different from those taking care of the COVID-19 patients; they too need to ensure that they wear them for protection. This has been shown to be an effective way of protecting one from bodily fluids and other infectious for people responding to other infectious conditions like Ebola in Africa. It is, therefore, a necessary personal protective equipment for those all healthcare workers during this COVID-19 pandemic.
Boots and Closed-Toe Shoes
For those working in the theatre setting, boots and closed-toe shoes are a requirement and part of the personal protective equipment. Surgeons must wear boots while operating to protect themselves from bodily fluids like the blood that may pour down, which is a potential infectious. In the same way, those attending to the COVID-19 patients have been recommended to be on their boots to avoid any contamination on the floor that is potentially infectious infected (Ranney et al., 2020). In addition, the boots are normally covered to avoid contamination and to reduce cleaning time and sterilization since they are reused. It is, therefore, necessary personal protective equipment for the healthcare workers treating and managing patients with COVID-19.
Conclusion
COVID-19 being an infectious condition, requires that the healthcare workers protect themselves while attending to those infected. This would ensure that they remain COVID-19 free so that they can continue providing that crucial service. They, therefore, require to be using personal protective equipment that has been recommended by WHO and CDC to avoid being infected. The recommended personal protective equipment by WHO and CDC includes masks, gloves, aprons, gowns and boots.
References
Chen, W., & Huang, Y. (2020). To Protect Health Care Workers Better, To Save More Lives With COVID-19. Anesthesia and Analgesia.
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-nCoV/index.html
https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019
Livingston, E., Desai, A., & Berkwits, M. (2020). Sourcing personal protective equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic. Jama, 323(19), 1912-1914.
Ng, K., Poon, B. H., Kiat Puar, T. H., Shan Quah, J. L., Loh, W. J., Wong, Y. J., … & Raghuram, J. (2020). COVID-19 and the risk to health care workers: a case report. Annals of internal medicine.
Ranney, M. L., Griffeth, V., & Jha, A. K. (2020). Critical supply shortages—the need for ventilators and personal protective equipment during the Covid-19 pandemic. New England Journal of Medicine, 382(18), e41.