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COVID-19 personal protective equipment protocol compliance audit
Shoena Wotherspoon1, Sheree Conroy1
1Medical Education Unit, Toowoomba Hospital, Toowoomba, 4350, Australia; University of Queensland Rural Clinical School, University of Queensland, Toowoomba, 4350, Australia.
Medical officers showed poor compliance with personal protective equipment (PPE) protocols during COVID-19, with low scores for donning and doffing. Enhanced training is crucial to improve healthcare worker safety and reduce pathogen transmission.
Area of Science:
- Healthcare worker safety
- Infectious disease control
- Epidemiology
Background:
- Personal protective equipment (PPE) is critical for preventing pathogen transmission to healthcare workers.
- Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, medical officer adherence to PPE protocols was audited in an Australian regional hospital.
Purpose of the Study:
- To assess medical officer compliance with PPE donning and doffing procedures during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- To identify areas for improvement in PPE usage among healthcare professionals.
Main Methods:
- Audits were conducted on medical officers across various departments and seniority levels.
- Compliance was evaluated based on the correct order and technique of donning and doffing PPE.
Main Results:
- Overall compliance with donning PPE averaged 58.61%.
- Overall compliance with doffing PPE averaged 68.84%.
Conclusions:
- Medical officer compliance with PPE donning and doffing procedures was suboptimal.
- There is a clear need for additional training to enhance PPE compliance among medical officers.
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