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Essay / Pandemics and Personal Protective Equipment
Personal protective equipment is very important when working in the healthcare sector. There are many precautions to take when caring for someone infected with a virus or contagious disease. Taking precautions not only protects the patient and healthcare professional, but will also prevent the spread of the disease or virus. Personal protective equipment is only useful if worn correctly. Monkey pox, plague, HIV, H1N1, and Zika virus are a few pandemics that require various types of personal protective equipment. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay. The CDC mandated Standard Precautions in the 1980s, which were designed to prevent the transmission of microorganisms from patient to patient, as well as to protect health. healthcare workers from unnecessary exposure to infection. These should be used on all patients because the infectious potential is not always known. Standard precautions include barrier precautions such as gloves, gown, face mask, and eye protection. These will protect you from unnecessary exposure or possible transmission of infection to your patient. Airborne precautions are necessary for patients with smallpox, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), measles, chickenpox, disseminated shingles, pulmonary or laryngeal tuberculosis, tuberculous skin drainage. viral lesions and hemorrhagic some of the common infections. They require the patient door to remain closed at all times. A special mask must be worn when entering the patient's room. A NIOSH approved N95 respirator is used to protect the wearer from airborne particles. The N95 mask must pass a fit test to ensure it fits properly, even then it does not eliminate the risk of infection. According to OSHA, fit testing is mandatory and the employer must provide it. To further research appropriate OSHA N95 fit testing, follow this link provided. There are several OSHA-approved methods. N95 masks are not recommended for use in people with respiratory, heart, or other chronic medical conditions that make breathing difficult. They should consult their healthcare professional before use. Airborne precautions do not require you to wear a gown or gloves, except if there is an open wound that is draining, then a gown and gloves are necessary. Contact precautions are guidelines recommended by the CDC to reduce the risk of transmitting organisms through direct or indirect contact. Common types of infections include open and draining wounds, history of MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus), VRE (vancomycin-resistant enterococci), ESBL-positive (extended-spectrum beta (ß) lactamase), diarrhea and MDRO (multidrug resistant organism) infections. . Contact precautions are patient specific, you may not always need a gown, mask with or without eye protection, hair and shoe coverings. If you must wear personal protective equipment such as a gown, mask, hair covering, shoe coverings, gloves or eye protection, there is an appropriate way to put it on and take it off. Start by washing your hands. If there is a risk of your hair falling on the patient during the procedure, you will first need to put thehair cover. Second, hold the gown by the neck area, allowing it to unfold with the opening facing back toward you. This will allow access to the gown keeping it clean or sterile. A clean gown should be used each time you enter a patient room and the same gown should not be used for two separate patients. Third, slip your arms into the sleeves and tie the ties at the back of the neck first, then at the waist. Tying the gown will prevent contaminants from coming into contact with your clothing. Fourth, face mask if necessary. Place the mask with the metal strip outside the nose, make sure it covers your mouth and nose. Secure the mask to the back of your head starting with the ties above the ears, then adjust the mask so that the bottom of the mask covers the mouth and chin and then fastens around the neck. To be sure the mask fits properly, it should fit close to the face, without any gaps. This mask does not require any special fit testing as mentioned above. If there is a risk that your shoes or feet may be contaminated, wear shoe covers now. Also put on protective glasses if they are not attached to the mask. Once the gown is attached, the mask is in place, then it's time to put on your gloves. When putting on gloves, make sure the glove cuffs are pulled up over the cuff of the dress to prevent contaminants from coming into contact with your skin. Once you are finished wearing personal protective equipment, there is also a proper way to remove and dispose of it. To remove PPE, you must first remove your gloves without contaminating your hands. To do this, grasp the back of one hand, slide the glove out of the hand, folding the contaminated glove inward. Then hold the glove you removed in the hand that is still wearing it, grasp the back of the remaining glove and roll the glove over the other contaminated glove, turning it over the first glove. Touch only the inside surface of the rolled glove and place it in the appropriate trash can. Then, if you wear protective glasses, they will need to be removed without touching your face and disposed of appropriately. Additionally, the hair cover should also be removed. Next, undo the tie at the waist of the dress, then place your hands inside the neckline and remove the dress from your shoulders, being careful not to let any contaminants from the outside touch you or your clothes. Once the dress is off your shoulder, slide your hands inside each sleeve. Then remove your arms and hands while assembling the gown on the outer surfaces, making sure the gown is inside out. Do not handle the inside of the gown or shake it. Dispose of the contaminated gown in the appropriate waste container. Once your gown is removed, you can remove your mask. First untie the strings around your neck then those at the top, throw them into the appropriate receptacle. Then carry out hand hygiene once everything has been removed. Droplet precautions require wearing a mask when entering the room and if the patient is transported anywhere outside of their room. Common infections related to droplet precautions include pneumonia, influenza, streptococcal pharyngitis, and whooping cough. Ebola precautions require someone to help put on and take off personal protective equipment, as well as observe patient care, ensuring there is no contamination or exposure. occurred. It is mandatory to wear an N95 mask with screencomplete facial and mask. In the article on Ebola and the quarantine, it is stated that the quarantine is unfair and unwise and does more harm than good. I don't agree with this. I think anyone returning from working with Ebola patients should be quarantined for 21 days, as a precaution. I understand how the effects of quarantine can affect a person mentally and cause inconvenience, but it is not worth infecting the United States. Even if it has been learned, transmission is transmitted when symptoms appear, such as fever, malaise, vomiting and diarrhea. What if the virus mutated and could then be transmitted before symptoms appear? If this happens and the person was not in quarantine, then the United States is in trouble. Healthcare workers should be honored for traveling to an infected area, but upon returning to the United States, they should be quarantined to protect the public. The plague is believed to have originated in Asia and is a bacterial infection caused by Yersinia pestis. This bacteria is carried by rats and mice and spread by flea bites. The plague is rare in the United States but has been found in California, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona. There are 3 different types of plague: bubonic plague is an infection of the lymph nodes, pneumonic plague is an infection of the lungs, and septicemic plague is an infection of the blood. Some of the signs and symptoms include fever, muscle pain, swollen lymph nodes, abdominal pain and bleeding in the organs. There is no vaccine for plague in the United States, but you can prevent it with environmental control. Treat dogs and cats for fleas, use insecticides approved to kill fleas during an outbreak. Try to eliminate rodent food and shelter in and around the house. If you have been exposed to an infected flea bite, tell your healthcare provider. The antibiotics generally used are tetracyclines, chloramphenicol or sulfonamides. Health care workers who encounter plague should use droplet precautions. Healthcare settings should strive to limit the number of people coming into direct contact with the patient. A mask should be provided to the symptomatic patient. People who come into direct contact with the infected person should wear gloves, a gown, goggles and an N95 mask. Health workers should practice good hand hygiene, washing thoroughly with soap and water or using alcohol-based hand sanitizers. Another type of pandemic is monkeypox. Monkey pox is found in remote areas of central and west Africa, near tropical rainforest. Monkeypox is a virus transmitted from infected monkeys to humans by eating or touching a dead animal infected with the virus. This virus has become the most important orthopoxvirus in humans and is similar to the smallpox virus. A combination of standard precautions and droplet precautions should be used. Avoid contact with animals that may harbor the virus, such as monkeys and rodents, avoid sick or dead animals that have been found in an area where monkeypox has occurred. Recently this year, 16 people in Cameroon were diagnosed. As it is in a remote part of the world, the risk of spreading the virus is limited. To prevent the spread of infection, isolate the infected person. Nursing staff must practice good.