Protecting HCP from Airborne Diseases

00:01 Well, there they are. Look at all those happy, smiling people on this slide.

00:05 These are the people that are the reason for the video.

00:08 We've looked at respiratory diseases that are airborne, that are bacterial and viral but the purpose of this video is to talk about these people that you see on the slide.

00:19 We're trying to keep health care personnel safe.

00:21 Now, a health care person is anyone paid or unpaid that serves in a health care setting.

00:27 The setting might be in the community or the hospital but they've got the potential to be in direct or indirect exposure to patients or infectious materials.

00:37 Now, when we say infectious materials, we mean things like possibly, infected body secretions, contaminated medical supplies, devices, or equipment, contaminated environmental surfaces.

00:49 Remember, with this respiratory, they can shoot out of someone's mouth, land on another human, they can land on a surface and live much longer than we're comfortable with.

00:59 Now, the fourth area they might be exposed to is contaminated air.

01:04 We just talked about that.

01:06 So, how do we keep healthcare personnel safe? They might be exposed to infected body secretions, medical supplies, devices and equipment, surfaces, or even contaminated air.

01:18 Well, in doing this, we're gonna look at three priorities when we're dealing with infectious diseases.

01:24 There's three goals that everyone has whether you're in the community or in a hospital facility and no matter where you live, these are three very important goals.

01:34 The first thing is you wanna limit how the germs enter the facility or the home setting.

01:41 So, number one, let's try to get fewer germs in the facility or the home setting.

01:47 Second priority, isolate patients who are symptomatic as soon as possible.

01:53 So, you wanna make sure that we have them isolated and I know, it sounds intense but the quicker we can separate them from the rest of the people, the easier it's gonna be to help slow down the spread of that disease.

02:06 Now, number three is protect healthcare personnel and caregivers. That is our goal.

02:12 So, no matter what you're dealing with, if you wanna try to prevent a pandemic or stop one from spreading, you wanna limit how germs enter to care settings, community, or in a facility.

02:24 You wanna isolate patients who are infectious as soon as possible and you wanna protect the health care personnel and caregivers.

02:32 Okay, so, let's look at the first one. We're gonna limit the entry of germs.

02:37 So, with a regular respiratory airborne disease and not talking about a pandemic, just regular procedures, we would try and limit the visitors, try to knock that down to just the essential people that are in that person's life.

02:49 We wanna make sure that healthcare providers and visitors wash their hands before and after they enter the patient's room or home in their environment.

02:59 Now, lastly and really important is they have to have appropriate PPE, personal protective equipment.

03:07 So, depending on what the infectious disease is, we wanna make sure the patient has the appropriate PPE.

03:14 Now, that's what we do under regular conditions.

03:16 Look what we do under a pandemic.

03:19 Now, this is a totally different circumstance.

03:22 Pandemic means this infectious disease is spreading around the world way faster than normal circumstances.

03:30 So, we're going to severely limit visitors.

03:34 Things that you'll see in these cases or you may see hospitals completely cut off visitors.

03:39 You may see government to ask people to stay in their homes.

03:42 They may close down public gatherings or meetings, movie theaters, restaurants, etc.

03:48 So, we're gonna severely limit our visitors of those who are sick and request that the people who aren't sick kind of socially separate themselves so we can reduce the spread of those germs.

04:01 Now, if we are talking about a facility, expect that not all the entrances will be available.

04:07 Hospitals are likely to narrow down the number of entrances they have.

04:11 If they normally have 15, they may cut that down to something like four.

04:16 Because every one of those entry points is gonna be manned by people who'll be doing screening procedures.

04:21 So, you're gonna see an increased screening procedure for everybody.

04:26 Yeah, those that are at home and those entering a facility.

04:31 Now, let me show you an example of some of these screening questions they may ask.

04:35 Those were being screened. Maybe ask things like, "Do you have any symptoms of the disease?" Now, if we're talking about COVID-19, that's definitely an infectious, airborne disease, we would ask them if they have any fever, any cough, any body aches, etc.

04:50 Other types of questions, they may ask, "Have you been exposed to a person diagnosed with this infectious disease?" In the case of COVID-19, that's a very common screening question.

05:01 And lastly, since something diseases like COVID-19 looks a lot like the flu or a common cold when it first starts, we try to pin down if the person has travelled.

05:12 If they've travelled to a location where there's been a high number of patients diagnosed with this infectious disease that is also a cause for concern.

05:20 So, that's an example of screening questions and another way that we can limit the entry of germs into the facility or the area of care.

05:29 Now, our second priority is to isolate patients.

05:32 So, we wanna designate separate areas for patients who've been diagnosed with a contagious disease.

05:38 They can be isolated in a home or in a facility. You just need a separate area.

05:43 If you're isolating at home, it would be better if the patient had their own bathroom and their own bedroom, and didn't share those things with other family members.

05:52 Also, wanna minimize the number of caregivers who interact with the patients that are in isolation.

05:57 In times of pandemic, you'll see hospitals devote floors or areas, or even entire hospitals to patients with an infectious disease so that it can maximize resources, focus them all in one place, and they can also minimize the amount of health care staff that are exposed to that patient.

06:16 Okay, so, we've talked about one, limit the entry of germs.

06:19 Now, two, isolating patients as soon as we know that there's a problem.

06:24 It's been the challenge with COVID-19 because sometimes, patients didn't show us symptoms before they were contagious.

06:33 So, you can only do the best that you can with the information that you have.

06:38 Now, number three is the one that this video is super focused on is protecting health care personnel.

06:44 So, we're gonna talk about precautions and when you're looking at precautions, there's very specific types of precautions.

06:51 So, let's walk through which ones those are.

06:54 For example, if you are a healthcare personnel, those who provide care for a patient with COVID-19, they're gonna be in the patient's room and taking care of them, they need contact, droplet, and airborne precautions.

07:09 Whoa, okay, hold on, we're gonna go through those but when you've got someone with an extremely contagious disease like COVID-19 that ended up being a pandemic in our world, they're gonna be on universal precautions.

07:24 Everyone's on universal precautions.

07:26 You remember, that means wear your gloves.

07:27 If you're gonna touch body fluids, make sure that you wash your hands well.

07:32 Those are basic, universal precautions.

07:35 With COVID-19, we require all of our personal protective equipment.

07:40 So, contact, droplet, and airborne precautions.

07:44 So, health care providers need to wear all the personnel protective equipment that you see here in our graphic.

07:50 Gowns, goggles, a respirator is preferred but you can also wear a mask and gloves.

07:58 So, those are the four key pieces of protective personal equipment that healthcare providers will need to wear in order to meet the requirements for contact, droplet, and airborne precautions.