Examining the Impact of Elastomeric Half Mask Respirator Knowledge and User Barriers on Safety Climate Perceptions in Health Care Settings

Details

• Personal Author:
  Angelilli, Sara ; Chalikonda, Sricharan ; Fernando, Rohan ; Haas, Emily J. ; Hines, Stella ; Hornbeck, Adam ; McClain, Catilin ; Napoli, Meghan ; Sietsema, Margaret ; Thurman, Paul ; Waltenbaugh, Hope ; Yoon, Katherine N.
• Description:
  Background: Availability of personal protective equipment (PPE) and its effective use may influence safety climate perceptions among health care personnel (HCP). It is unclear how health care organizations can leverage the effective use of respiratory protection to engage in continuous improvement of their safety climate, which can inform opportunities for employee education and engagement. Methods: After using an elastomeric half mask respirator (EHMR) as their primary form of respiratory protection for several months, 1,080 HCP provided feedback in an electronic survey about respiratory protection training, confidence in EHMR use, barriers during use, and perceived safety climate. Ordinal logistic regressions were used as nonlinear models to test relationships between these variables. Findings: We observed that an increase in user confidence (p < .013), training content (p < .001), training formats (p < .001), and a decrease in EHMR barriers (p < .001) were associated with a statistically significant increase in proactive safety climate. In the second model, an increase in user confidence (p < .006) and training content (p < .001), and a decrease in barriers (p < .001), was associated with a statistically significant increase in compliant safety climate. Conclusions/Application to Practice: HCP EHMR confidence was positively associated with safety climate perceptions, underscoring the value of competency building by respiratory protection leaders prior to implementation. Because fewer barriers experienced while using an EHMR were associated with a more positive perception of safety climate, it is important to first communicate with end users about potential barriers and, second, to continue research with end users and manufacturers to improve the design of EHMRs moving forward. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Elastomers Health Personnel Occupational Health Personal Protective Equipment Respiratory Protective Devices Safety
• Keywords:
  Author Keywords: Elastomeric Half Mask Respirator EHMR Elastomeric Half-mask Respirators Health Care Personnel Health Care Workers Ordinal Regression Personal Protective Equipment PPE Respiratory Protection Safety Climate
• ISSN:
  2165-0799
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Maryland ; OSHA Region 3 ; Pennsylvania
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  NPPTL - National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  10 pdf pages
• Volume:
  71
• Issue:
  7
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20067566
• Citation:
  Workplace Health Saf 2023 Jul; 71(7):337-346
• Contact Point Address:
  Emily J. Haas, PhD, National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, 626 Cochrans Mill Rd., Pittsburgh, PA 15236, USA
• Email:
  wcq3@cdc.gov
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2023
• NORA Priority Area:
  Healthcare and Social Assistance
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Source Full Name:
  Workplace Health & Safety
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:b23fcfe7618cd2ebd633e0a0e77ea337cb50867f6a6d5c937430984c7710dd22d27ef53e7a85b072ef4ded4934d4a851ae44bbe0b8502a94cdadec5ebe30cb9e
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/230718/cdc_230718_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 189.55 KB ]