Personal protective equipment (PPE)

What is personal protective equipment?

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) is special attire for the health care workers with some accessories which are used in the surgical suits and other places i.e.  laboratory or wards where chance of infection is high or special centers for disease which can be infections just like in case of COVID 19.

What is use of personal protective equipment?

As we know that in a hospital environment there are a number of pathogens which are in air, surfaces and in the patients infected with pathogens.  In health care department all staff has to deal with these objects and persons. so, there is a chance to be infected by the infected persons or objects personal protective equipment (PPE) reduce the risk.
Or there is another risk during dealing with the patient’s hospital staff may contain different types of virus, bacteria, fungi, spores or other germs which can create infection in non-infected persons. just like in case of COVID 19 case all hospital staff needs PPE for prevention of getting or transferring disease to other.
In a surgical environment a sterile environment is necessary to achieve best results of surgery. If the protocol for personal protective equipment (PPE) is not followed there is a greater risk of post-operative infection to the patient or getting infection from patient to the hospital staff. so, the personal protective equipment (PPE) must be used.

 What are basic components of Personal Protective Equipment?

Following are basic components of Personal Protective Equipment.

1. Operation Theatre Suit or Kit
2. Face mask
3. Hair cap
4. Goggles or protective glasses
5. Gloves
6. Gown
7. Closed shoes
8. Shoe covers
9. Water proof aprons

Special Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for COVID 19 

 According to World Health Organization Personal Protective Equipment must be used properly and follow all precaution during handling with COVID 19 patients.

The special P.P.E are as:
1. Face shield
2. Full body attire with hood cap
3. Respirator N-95 mask
4. Apron
5. Gloves
6. Goggles

Operation Theatre Attire or Kit 

This is a special type of dress which is used in Operation Theatre and ICU.
All staff of Operation Theatre must wear this suite. This must be laundered regularly. Freshly laundered suit must be used. A water proof apron can be used on this suit in the cases in which an irrigation is required for example in urology surgery water proof apron is used.

Face Mask: 

Our nose contains several types of pathogens. Surgical mask or other face mask prevent the transfer of pathogens from nose to the air or directly by sneezing into the patient wound during surgery. For example, if the patient is on list for hernia surgery is being performed you don’t follow the precautions to wear mask there is a high risk that patient cab get pot operative infection.
It should be used by all health care persons in the hospital or if some hospital staff has some infection the mask can be a preventive measure to reduce the spread of infection.
In case of COVID 19 N-95 mask are recommended for the hospital staff to prevent the spread and personnel safety.

Hair Caps:

 Our hairs contain dandruff dust and several type of microorganisms that is why hospital staff need to cover their hairs with caps to avoid infection.
Different types of CAPS (Practice Essentials Community-Acquired Pneumonia) are available which are an effective method of reducing the chance of infection.
For COVID 19 attire with Hood CAP is used or Space CAPS can also be used.

Gloves:

The gloves protect our hands from infection because our hands directly contact to the wound or infection so that the protection of our hands is very important.
Glove also protect us from injury from the instruments. We will separately discuss about the gloves in new post.

Goggles:

Goggles are used to protect the eyes from entering of blood or air borne droplets.
For example, during Surgery due to high pressure in the arteries blood rushes out in this time if you don’t have goggles it can enter to your eyes that can cause infection.

Shoes: 

Our shoes are a great risk of infection in the operation theater. Street shoes can contain a lot of germs so that these must be removed or changed.
Shoes must be closed non porous. in most of hospitals special shoes are provided to the staff in Operation Theater which are changed during entering the operation theater and are removed before leaving the site.
In some facilities shoe covers are used to cover the shoes.