Impact of full personal protective equipment on alertness of healthcare workers: a prospective study

[摘要] The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in healthcare workers (HCWs) having to wear full personal protective equipment (FPPE) even for routine patient care. When worn for prolonged periods, FPPE has the potential to adversely affect the ability of HCW to carry out their tasks. This study aimed to assess the impact of FPPE on the alertness levels of HCWs in the intensive care unit.Fifty HCWs were tested using psychomotor vigilance test (PVT) and serial sevens test (SST) on two occasions during their shift—once without FPPE and once after they had been in FPPE for at least 2 hours. The median time in FPPE was 2.5 hours. FPPE induced a significant increase in the average reaction time and the number of false responses in PVT. Subjects took longer to complete SST in FPPE compared with without it.This study demonstrates that being in FPPE for as little as 2.5 hours can adversely affect HCW alertness. The findings of this study are relevant in terms of workforce environment considerations as the use of FPPE in certain settings is likely to become a regular feature.critical carefatigueharm reductionhuman factorspatient safetyData availability statementData are available on reasonable request. Data relating to the study not already included in the article ARE available on reasonable request subject to approval of release of the same from the institution.http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.

[学科分类] 药学

[关键词] critical care;fatigue;harm reduction;human factors;patient safety