Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care (Jan 2022)

Is it a challenging task to work with personal protective equipment in a COVID-19 ICU: Findings from a hospital-based cross-sectional study from north India

  • Karthikeyan Mahalingam,
  • Surbhi,
  • Akshaya Balaji,
  • Ragul Ganesh,
  • Roy Arokiam Daniel,
  • Richa Aggarwal,
  • Kapil Dev Soni,
  • Akhil Kant Singh,
  • Puneet Khanna,
  • Viney Gupta,
  • Anjan Trikha

DOI
https://doi.org/10.4103/jfmpc.jfmpc_1937_21
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 11, no. 5
pp. 1935 – 1942

Abstract

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Introduction: Amidst the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) is mandatory for healthcare workers to remain protected against infection. The present study was undertaken to evaluate challenges faced by the healthcare workers while using level 3 PPE. Methods: This hospital-based study was conducted among resident doctors selected by convenience sampling method using a pretested, semi-structured, self-administered questionnaire after getting informed consent from the participants to collect data on the somatic, psychological, and technical problems faced while working in PPE. Bivariate and multivariable logistic regression was done between outcome variables and other independent variables to check for the association. Results: Of the total, 252 resident doctors completed the survey, their age ranged from 22 to 36 years with 140 (55.6%) males and 112 (44.4%) females. One-twenty-nine (51.2%) residents were trained to work in ICU, 73 (29%) participants used PPE ≤10 times and the rest 179 (71%) used PPE more than 10 times. The difficulties faced were as follows: visual impairment (n = 244, 96.8%), headache (n = 226, 89.6%), breathing difficulty (n = 216, 85.7%), hearing impairment (n = 201, 79.8%), sweating (n = 242, 96%), and fear of being infected (n = 156,61.9%). Two-thirty-six (93.6%) participants felt that overall work quality reduced due to PPE. Headache, hunger, urge to micturate, anxiety, sleep disturbances, and need to change the timing of medication or diet were higher with increased duration of work with PPE. Conclusion: A longer duration of work is associated with headache, hunger, anxiety, and sleep disturbances. More research has to be done to improve the PPE to reduce problems like visual impairment, skin irritation, sweating, and breathing difficulty.

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