The New South Wales Biocontainment Centre is a statewide referral facility for patients with high-consequence infectious disease (HCID). The facility collaborates with researchers to adapt existing HCID procedures such as donning and doffing of personal protective equipment (PPE). However, information on how to respond safely to collapse of a healthcare provider in full PPE within a contaminated zone is scarce.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The use of personal protective equipment (PPE) in emergency departments (EDs) is an important defense during infectious disease emergencies. However, what counts as appropriate PPE in EDs is contentious and inconsistently implemented in practice.
Methods: An online scenario-based video survey was distributed through purposive sampling, and completed by 270 ED and infection prevention and control clinicians in Australia.
Objectives: During a precommissioning inspection of a new biocontainment centre, radiographers noted structural features of quarantine rooms that could compromise staff and patient safety and the X-ray image quality, even after significant modifications had been made to an earlier radiography protocol. The aim of this study was to explore the safety and effectiveness of the modified protocol, in the new space, and identify improvements, if required.
Design: A qualitative study using in situ simulation and video-reflexive methods.
Collaborative approaches to knowledge translation seek to make research useful and applicable, by centring the perspectives and concerns of healthcare actors (rather than researchers) in problem formulation and solving. Such research thus involves multiple actors, in interaction with pre-existing ecologies of knowledge and expertise. Although collaboration is emphasised, conflict, dissonance, and other tensions, may arise from the multiplicity of perspectives and power dynamics involved.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: With the advent of COVID-19, many healthcare workers (HWs) in Australia requested access to powered air purifying respirators (PAPR) for improved respiratory protection, comfort and visibility. The urgency of the response at our hospital required rapid deployment of innovative training to ensure the safe use of PAPRs, in particular, a video-feedback training option to prepare HWs for PAPR competency.
Aim: To explore the feasibility, acceptability, and utility of video-feedback in PAPR training and competency assessment.