Personal protective equipment (PPE) refers to protective clothing, helmets, gloves, face shields, goggles, facemasks and/or respirators or other equipment designed to protect the wearer from injury or the spread of infection or illness .
Why is it important for health care workers to wear personal protective equipment?
Personal protective equipment (PPE) helps prevent the spread of germs in the hospital . This can protect people and health care workers from infections. All hospital staff, patients, and visitors should use PPE when there will be contact with blood or other bodily fluids.
Why is it important to change your PPE from patient to patient?
The use of personal protective equipment (PPE) is an important strategy to protect healthcare personnel from contamination and to prevent the spread of pathogens to subsequent patients . However, optimal PPE use is difficult, and healthcare personnel may alter delivery of care because of the PPE.
What personal protective equipment PPE is used by healthcare professionals?
PPE Use in Healthcare Settings
Gloves, protect the hands, gowns or aprons protect the skin and/or clothing, masks and respirators protect the mouth and nose, goggles protect the eyes, and face shields protect the entire face.
How does personal protective equipment prevent infection?
Correct use of PPE prevents pathogens from being transmitted from infected patients to other patients, staff and visitors, as well as equipment and objects within the environment . And good hand hygiene and environmental cleaning kills the pathogens to prevent them from being spread between people and surfaces.
What is the role of personal protective equipment in the prevention and control of COVID-19?
When used correctly, PPE such as gloves, aprons, eye protection, masks and gowns function as a physical barrier to the transmission of infectious particles present in bodily fluids . It also protects patients from transmission via the contaminated hands or clothing of healthcare staff (Brown et al, 2019).
Why is it so important to properly don and remove personal protective equipment?
Summary. PPE is available to minimize the potential harm from exposure to pathogens such as the Ebola virus. When PPE is worn, removed, and discarded properly, it is effective in protecting the person wearing it and the patients and health care workers with whom that person comes into contact .
What key principle should health care workers consider to ensure safe and effective use of personal protective equipment PPE when caring for an infectious patient?
The basic rules used to ensure safe and effective PPE use include: Donning (putting PPE on): Putting on PPE must be directly observed by a trained observer and each item must be put on in a specific order . Once the PPE items are on, no manipulation of those items can occur inside the patient care area.
Why healthcare professionals use protective gloves when treating patients?
1. To reduce the risk of contamination of health-care workers hands with blood and other body fluids . 2. To reduce the risk of germ dissemination to the environment and of transmission from the health-care worker to the patient and vice versa, as well as from one patient to another.
Why do you wear personal protective equipment when giving first aid?
Personal protective equipment (PPE) is used by healthcare providers to protect themselves from injury or infection during an emergency .
What are the examples of personal protective equipment?
Personal protective equipment, commonly referred to as “PPE”, is equipment worn to minimize exposure to a variety of hazards. Examples of PPE include such items as gloves, foot and eye protection, protective hearing devices (earplugs, muffs) hard hats, respirators and full body suits . Understand the types of PPE.
How do you dispose of personal protective equipment and other waste appropriately?
Properly cleaned PPE can be disposed of as regular garbage . PPE that is contaminated with a pesticide must be disposed of according to directions on the pesticide product label and all federal, state, and local regulations.
Which of the following is an appropriate guideline to follow when using personal protective equipment?
You must always wear gloves when at risk for exposure to blood, body fluids, secretions, excretions, and contaminated items . You must also wear gloves before touching mucous membranes and non-intact skin. If YOU have non-intact skin (such as cuts or scrapes) on your hands, you must wear gloves when making contact.
