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Right PPE + Right Time = Healthy Providers – Using the right personal protective equipment (PPE) at the right time helps to ensure the necessary supplies will be there when you need them in the future.
The COVID-19 virus is transmitted through droplets when you cough or sneeze, by:
prolonged personal contact such as touching or shaking hands
touching something with the virus on it then touching your mouth, nose or eyes before you clean your hands, or
having someone cough of sneeze in your face
To protect yourself:
- Practice good hand hygiene with soap and water or an alcohol-based hand rub, even when a particular situation requires additional Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).
- Clean high-touch surfaces.
- Screen patients for fever and respiratory symptoms.
- When caring for a patient with COVID-19 or other respiratory infection, follow contact and droplet precautions, using the gloves, gown, mask and eye protection you would commonly use when caring for patients with diseases like influenza.
- Unless your patient has COVID-19 or other respiratory infection, or has been admitted to hospital while still on self-isolation, you do notneed to use contact and droplet precautions.
- Because COVID-19 is not an airborne virus, in the spirit of making the best use of our PPE, N95 respirators should be reserved for aerosol-generating medical procedures.
- There may be specific situations where infection prevention and control does recommend additional precautions. These decisions will be made case by case.
When in doubt about PPE, ask a supervisor about the right equipment to use and how to use it properly.
Together, we can help protect each other today, and in the future by making the best possible use of PPE. Thank you for all you are doing to keep yourselves, your colleagues and patients healthy!
In addition – here is the pertinent portion of a memo that went out to managers as part of a call for trainers – they will be using a train the trainer approach. This is a huge undertaking for the organization to identify these trainers and roll this out as you can imagine.
NSHA has developed education to support practical, evidence-informed decision making for all our team members about overall Infection Prevention and Control (IPAC) strategies, including when and how to use appropriate PPE, and strategies such as batching tasks to conserve PPE where possible.
This is an organizational priority to ensure all members of our teams understand when and how to appropriately protect themselves, as well as when PPE is not needed or may increase risk. Over the coming week, education sessions will be held across the organization to educate IPAC coaches designated in all care areas and services. IPAC coaches could be formal or informal leaders from clinical and service areas across the organization. We are asking that site leads/managers identify at least one coach in every care area or service and ensure they are available for education in the coming week.
Once IPAC coaches are in place, they will serve as a resource to their units/service teams, and may also contribute to education at the team, service, or facility level.
Tracey Ungar, CPHR
People Services Director Employee and Labour Relations and Northern Zone Operations
Colchester East Hants Health Centre
600 Abenaki Road
Truro, NS B2N 5A1
Office: 902-893-5554 ext 42134
Cell: 902-890-7418