How Clinicians Manage Routinely Low Supplies of Personal Protective Equipment

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Am J Infect Control
• Personal Author:
  Ridge, Laura Jean ; Stimpfel, Amy Witkoski ; Dickson, Victoria Vaughan ; Klar, Robin Toft ; Squires, Allison Patricia
• Description:
  Background:
  
  Recommended personal protective equipment (PPE) is routinely limited or unavailable in low-income countries, but there is limited research as to how clinicians adapt to that scarcity, despite its implications for patients and workers.
  
  Methods:
  
  This is a qualitative secondary analysis of case study data collected in Liberia in 2019. Data from the parent study were included in this analysis if it addressed availability and use of PPE in the clinical setting. Conventional content analysis was used on data including: field notes documenting nurse practice, semi-structured interview transcripts, and photographs.
  
  Findings:
  
  Data from the majority of participants (32/37) and all facilities (12/12) in the parent studies were included. 83% of facilities reported limited PPE. Five management strategies for coping with limited PPE supplies were observed, reported, or both: rationing PPE, self-purchasing PPE, asking patients to purchase PPE, substituting PPE, and working without PPE. Approaches to rationing PPE included using PPE only for symptomatic patients or not performing physical exams. Substitutions for PPE were based on supply availability.
  
  Conclusions:
  
  Strategies developed by clinicians to manage low PPE likely have negative consequences for both workers and patients; further research into the topic is important, as is better PPE provision in low-income countries.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Health Personnel Humans Personal Protective Equipment
• Source:
  Am J Infect Control. 49(12):1488-1492
• Pubmed ID:
  34416315
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC8811879
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  T32 NR016914/NR/NINR NIH HHSUnited States/ ; T42OH008422/ACL/ACL HHSUnited States/ ; T42 OH008422/OH/NIOSH CDC HHSUnited States/
• Place as Subject:
  Liberia
• Volume:
  49
• Issue:
  12
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:9b0cd87c279f68f1975a1391ff8d198aa5e2ba3e9dd0298b13e149b96f47fa7e
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/114121/cdc_114121_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 377.51 KB ]