PPE: Reasons for Unfitness and the Required Actions

Importance of PPE

Explain the importance of removing personal clothing , makeup and fashion items as required by own work setting. It is important to remove personal clothing, make up and fashion items to minimise barriers to effective hand hygiene whilst in the patient’s environment. It is also important to present yourself professionally at all times, the way you look will be seen as a measure of your competence by those who use the services and by your colleagues. Check the cleanliness, suitability and fit of PPE for the roles and procedures to be undertaken.

The decision to use or wear personal protective equipment must be based upon an assessment of the level of risk associated with a specific patient care activity or intervention and take account of current health and safety legislation. An assessment of the risk of transmission of micro organisms to the patient or to the carer and the risk of contamination of the healthcare practitioner’s clothing and skin by patient’s blood, body fluid, secretions or excretions.

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Describe how PPE may become unsuitable for use and actions to take if this happens.

Gloves should not be worn unnecessarily because prolonged and indiscriminate use may cause adverse reactions and skin sensitivity as with all items of personal protective equipment, the need for gloves and the selection of appropriate materials must be subject to careful assessment of the task to be carried out and its related risks to patient and healthcare workers. Gloves and aprons must be discarded after each use care activity for which they were worn in order to prevent the transmission of micro organisms to order sites in that individual or to other patients.

There is growing incidence of latex allergy, nitrile gloves should therefore be used in preference to latex ones, latex gloves that contain powder should never be used as it increases the risk of allergy. Work from” clean to dirty” This refers to tourching clean body sites or surface before you tourch dirty or heavily contaminated areas. Confirm the importance of promptly reporting reduction in stock of PPE.

It is important to promptly report reduction in the stock of personal protective equipment so that stock can be ordered in time and you would not be in a situation where you have to take the risk of working without personal protective equipment. Confirm when synthetic non-powered and un-sterile gloves and apron should be used. Neoprene and nitrile gloves are good alternatives to natural rubber latex. These synthetic gloves have been shown to have comparable in-use barrier performance to natural rubber latex gloves in labouratory and clinical studies.