Opportunities to bridge gaps between respiratory protection guidance and practice in US health care.

Healthcare organizations are required to provide workers with respiratory protection (RP) to mitigate hazardous airborne inhalation exposures. This study sought to better identify gaps that exist between RP guidance and clinical practice to understand issues that would benefit from additional research or clarification.

Occupational health nurses’ achievement of competence and comfort in respiratory protection and preferred learning methods results of a nationwide survey.

Additional findings are presented from a 2012 nationwide survey of 2,072 occupational health nurses regarding how they achieved competence in respiratory protection, their preferred methods of learning, and how they motivated employees to use respiratory protection. On-the-job training, taking a National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health spirometry course, or attending professional conferences were the primary ways occupational health nurses gained respiratory protection knowledge. Attending professional conferences was the preferred method of learning, varying by type of industry and years of occupational health nurse experience.

Physiological evaluation of air-fed ensembles.

The goal of this study was to evaluate the respiratory and metabolic stresses of air-fed ensembles used by workers in the nuclear, chemical, and pharmaceutical industries during rest, low-, and moderate-intensity treadmill exercise. Fourteen men and six women wore two different air-fed ensembles (AFE-1 and AFE-2) and one two-piece supplied-air respirator (SA) at rest (REST) and while walking for 6min at oxygen consumption (V.O2) rates of 1.

Proper use of surgical n95 respirators and surgical masks in the OR.

Proper adherence to infection control precautions, including appropriate selection and use of personal protective equipment (PPE), is of significant importance to the health and well-being of perioperative personnel. Surgical masks are intended for use as a barrier to protect the wearer's face from large droplets and splashes of blood and other body fluids; however, surgical and high-filtration surgical laser masks do not provide enough protection to be considered respiratory PPE. Potential exposure to airborne contaminants and infectious agents, including those present in surgical smoke, necessitates the use of respiratory PPE, such as a surgical N95 particulate filtering facepiece respirator.

Impact of three biological decontamination methods on filtering facepiece respirator fit, odor, comfort, and donning ease.

The objective of this study was to determine if ultraviolet germicidal irradiation (UVGI), moist heat incubation (MHI), or microwave-generated steam (MGS) decontamination affects the fitting characteristics, odor, comfort, or donning ease of six N95 filtering facepiece respirator (FFR) models. For each model, 10 experienced test subjects qualified for the study by passing a standard OSHA quantitative fit test. Once qualified, each subject performed a series of fit tests to assess respirator fit and completed surveys to evaluate odor, comfort, and donning ease with FFRs that were not decontaminated (controls) and with FFRs of the same model that had been decontaminated.