Experiences of nurses with the use of personal protective equipment in a COVID-19 emergency department
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.29352/mill029e.24925Keywords:
coronavirus infections, nursing, qualitative research, personal protective equipmentAbstract
Introduction: The 2019 Coronavirus disease pandemic (COVID-19) has rapidly evolved and affected healthcare workers, who have been required to wear personal protective equipment (PPE) to reduce the risk of acquiring or transmitting Coronavirus disease. PPE has been a challenge to patient care, interpersonal relationships and the health and well-being of professionals.
Objetives: To describe the nurses' experiences with the use of personal protective equipment in a COVID-19 emergency service.
Methods: A hermeneutic phenomenological qualitative methodology was applied, which allowed for a reflection on the basic structures of the lived experiences reported by the participants. 11 nurses were interviewed in a hospital in northern Portugal.
Results: From the analysis of the interviews, four themes emerged regarding the nurses' experiences and, in relation to the theme under study, several categories were identified: difficulties and obstacles, implications for use, duration of use, and attitudes of users and relatives. Within these categories, several subcategories were identified and carefully analysed in this study.
Conclusion: The study evidenced several adverse effects and limitations arising from the use of PPE, suggesting the development of policies and strategies to ensure the well-being of nurses and better performance capacity in performing procedures and providing care.
Downloads
References
Ardebili, M. E., Naserbakht, M. N., Bernstein, C., Alazmani-Noodeh, F. Hakimi, H. Ranjbar, H. (2020). Healthcare providers experience of working during the COVID-19 pandemic: A qualitative study. American Journal of Infection Control, 49(5), 547-554. doi:10.1016/j.ajic.2020.10.001
Carter, S., Field, E., Oppermann, E., & Brearley, M. (2020). The impact of perceived heat stress symptoms on work-related tasks and social factors: A cross-sectional survey of Australia's Monsoonal North. Applied Ergonomics, 82, 102918. doi:10.1016/j.apergo.2019.102918
Chang, D., Xu, H., Rebaza, A., Sharma, L. & Dela Cruz, C., S. (2020). Protecting health-care workers from subclinical coronavirus infection. The Lancet Respiratory Medicine, 8, e13. doi.org/10.1016/S2213-2600(20)30066-7
Chen, Q., Liang, M., Li, Y., Guo, J., Fei, D., Wang, L., He, L., Sheng, C., Cai, Y., Li, X., Wang, J., & Zhang, Z. (2020). Mental health care for medical staff in China during the COVID-19 outbreak. The Lancet Psychiatry, 7(4), e15-e16. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2215-0366(20)30078-X
Coca, A., Quinn, T., Kim, J., Wu, T., Powell, J., Roberge, R. & Shaffer, R. (2017). Physiological Evaluation of Personal Protective Ensembles Recommended for Use in West Africa. Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness, 11(5), 580-586. doi: 10.1017/dmp.2017.13
Cook, T. M. (2020). Personal protective equipment during the coronavirus disease (COVID) 2019 pandemic – a narrative review. Anaesthesia, 75(7), 920-927. doi.org/10.1111/anae.15071
Davey, S. L., Lee, B. J., Robbins, T., Randeva, H., & Thake, C. D. (2021). Heat Stress and PPE during COVID-19: Impact on health care workers’ performance, safety and well-being in NHS settings. Journal of Hospital Infecion, 108, 185-188. doi.org/10.1016/j.jhin.2020.11.027
Den Boon, S., Vallenas, C., Ferri, M., & Norris, S.L. (2018). Incorporating health workers' perspectives into a WHO guideline on personal protective equipment developed during an Ebola virus disease outbreak. F1000Reserch, 7, 45. doi:10.12688/f1000research.12922.2
Gaoua, N., Racinais, S., Grantham, J., & El Massioui, F. (2011). Alterations in cognitive performance during passive hyperthermia are task dependent. International Journal of Hyperthermia, 27, 1–9. doi: 10.3109/02656736.2010. 516305
Hoernke, K., Djellouli, N., Andrews, L., Lewis-Jackson, S., Manby, L., Martin, S., Vanderslott, S., & Vindrola-Prados, C. (2020). Frontline healthcare workers’ experiences with personal protective equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK: a rapid qualitative appraisal. BMJ Open, 11(1), e046199. doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2020-046199
Honda, H., & Iwata, K. (2016). Personal protective equipment and improving compliance among healthcare workers in high-risk settings. Current Opinion in Infection Diseases. 29(4), 400–406. doi:10.1097/QCO.0000000000000280.
Iheduru-Anderson K. (2020). Reflections on the lived experience of working with limited personal protective equipment during the COVID-19 crisis. Nursing Inquiry, 28(1), e12382. doi.org/10.1111/nin.12382
Liu, Q., Luo, D., Haase, J., E., Guo, Q., Wang, X. Q., Liu, S., Xia, L., Liu, Z., Yang, J., & Yang, B. X. (2020). The experiences of healthcare providers during the COVID-19 crisis in China: a qualitative study. The Lancet Global Health, 8(6), e790-e798. doi.org/10.1016/S2214-109X(20)30204-7
Morabito, M., Messeri, A., Crisci, A., Pratali, L., Bonafede, M. & Marincho, A. (2020). Heat warning and public and workers’ health at the time of COVID-19 pandemic. Science of the Total Environment, 738, 140347. doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.140347
Mozzato, A., R., Grzybovski, D., & Teixeira, A., N. (2016). Análises qualitativas nos estudos organizacionais: as vantagens no uso do software NVivo. Revista Alcance, 23(4), 578–587. doi.org/10.14210/alcance.v23n4(Out-Dez).p578-587
Powell, T., Christ, K. C., & Birkhead, G. S. (2008). Allocation of ventilators in a public health disaster. Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness, 2(1), 20–26. https://doi.org/10.1097/DMP.0b013e3181620794
QSR International Pty Ltd. (2018) NVivo (Version 12), https://www.qsrinternational.com/nvivo-qualitative-data-analysissoftware/home
Tabah, A., Ramanan, M., Laupland, K. B., Buetti, N., Cortegiani, A., Mellinghoff, J., Conway Morris, A., Camporota, L., Zappella, N., Elhadi, M., Povoa, P., Amrein, K., Vidal, G., Derde, L., Bassetti, M., Francois, G., Ssi Yan Kai, N., De Waele, J. J., & PPE-SAFE contributors (2020). Personal protective equipment and intensive care unit healthcare worker safety in the COVID-19 era (PPE-SAFE): An international survey. Journal of critical care, 59, 70–75. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrc.2020.06.005
Tombolato, M., A. & Santos, M., A. (2020). Análise Fenomenológica Interpretativa (AFI): fundamentos básicos e aplicações em pesquisa. Revista da Abordagem Gestáltica,: 26(3), 293-304. doi.org/10.18065/2020v26n3.5
Van Manen, M. (2016). Phenomenology of practice: meaning-giving methods in phenomenological research and writing. New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-61132-944-5
Vindrola-Padros, C., Andrews, L., Dowrick, A., Djellouli, N., Fillmore, H., Bautista Gonzalez, E., Javadi, D., Lewis-Jackson, S., Manby, L., Mitchinson, L., Mulcahy Symmons, S., Martin, S., Regenold, N., Robinson, H., Sumray, K., Singleton, G., Syversen, A., Vanderslott, S., & Johnson, G. (2020). Perceptions and experiences of healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK. BMJ Open, 10(11), e040503. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-040503
World Medical Association. (2008). Declaration of Helsinki - Ethical principles for medical research involving human subjects. Obtido de: http://www.wma.net/en/30publications/10policies/b3/17c.pdf
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors who submit proposals for this journal agree to the following terms:
a) Articles are published under the Licença Creative Commons (CC BY 4.0), in full open-access, without any cost or fees of any kind to the author or the reader;
b) The authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication, allowing the free sharing of work, provided it is correctly attributed the authorship and initial publication in this journal;
c) The authors are permitted to take on additional contracts separately for non-exclusive distribution of the version of the work published in this journal (eg, post it to an institutional repository or as a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal;
d) Authors are permitted and encouraged to publish and distribute their work online (eg, in institutional repositories or on their website) as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as increase the impact and citation of published work
Documents required for submission
Article template (Editable format)
