Optimizing Personal Protective Equipment Donning and Doffing Among Intensive Care Unit Nurses: A Quasi-Experimental...

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Education
• Infection Prevention and Control
• Nursing Practice

Background:

• Correct use of personal protective equipment (PPE) is crucial for infection prevention in intensive care settings.
• Nurses frequently exhibit deficiencies in PPE donning and doffing techniques, posing a risk to patient safety.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare the effectiveness of mobile application (app)-based versus printed educational materials for improving intensive care unit (ICU) nurses' knowledge and skills in PPE donning and doffing.
• To assess the retention of PPE skills over time following different educational interventions.

Main Methods:

• A quasi-experimental study involving 40 nurses in an anaesthesia intensive care unit.
• Participants were divided into two groups: one receiving printed educational materials and the other using a mobile app for PPE training.
• Knowledge and skill assessments were conducted immediately after training and at an 8-week follow-up.

Main Results:

• Both groups demonstrated high baseline knowledge scores.
• PPE skill scores significantly increased in both groups immediately after training.
• However, skill scores declined by Week 8 post-training in both the printed material and mobile app groups.
• UV-fluorescent simulation effectively visualized contamination and enhanced awareness of transmission routes.

Conclusions:

• Both mobile app-based and printed educational materials offer short-term improvements in PPE donning and doffing performance for ICU nurses.
• The decline in skills after 8 weeks highlights the inadequacy of one-time training for sustained competence.
• Effective PPE education should integrate structured instruction, repeated practice, and visual feedback, potentially using UV-fluorescent simulation to reinforce contamination awareness and infection prevention.