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Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) training session

This session is designed to support you to maintain your health and wellbeing while working with people with a disability, whether in a residential or community setting.

At the end of this module, you will be able to:

  • Explain why PPE is important to minimize the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19)
  • Identify when to use PPE
  • Demonstrate how to apply and remove PPE in the correct order.

This session will take around 10 minutes to complete. At the end, you will be required to complete a short, comprehensive quiz.

Resources

This training has been adapted from the Australian Government’s Aged Care Module 5 session. The information in this session is consistent with COVID-19 Guidelines for Outbreaks in Residential Care Facilities.

Information regarding the COVID-19 pandemic is continually evolving, so please ensure that you regularly review the information at the Australian Government Department of Health, as well as the Tasmanian Government Coronavirus website.

You can also find answers to come frequently asked questions about COVID-19 on Confluence here.

Good practice precautions

PPE is one element of good practices (precautions) that prevent the spread of infection. The precautions are divided into:

  • Standard precautions

    These occur routinely in all care settings and encounters with the people we support.

    Standard precautions routinely protect staff and people we support from infections disease. They are the minimum infection control standard when in contact with others in care.

    They require staff to:

    • Perform hand hygiene, before and after every episode of contact with a person we support
    • Safely use and dispose of sharps
    • Routinely clean the environment as well as clean and sanitize –reusable equipment
    • Conduct and encourage respiratory hygiene and cough etiquette
    • Avoid touching where possible when there is a risk of spreading disease
    • Managing waste and linen appropriately
    • Use personal protective equipment when in contact with blood and body fluids (secretions and excretions excluding sweat) or if the staff member has a break in their skin. Skin is a natural barrier to the spread of infection.

     

    These are all routine requirements when caring for others.

  • Transmission-based precautions

    These depend on how the infection is spread (transmitted from one to another). The vast majority of the spread of COVID-19 is believed to occur from large droplets of infection particles produced when coughing.

    The cough produces large infection droplets which fall about a metre away from the mouth. This is why we have been asked to stay 1.5 metres away from each other. If someone coughs directly on you within this space you can inhale the particles.

    These droplets land on materials close to the ill person and may survive on the surface for a period from hours to 3 days. This is why we have been asked to increase cleaning and sanitizing of the environment around people with COVID-19.

    If another person touches the surface they can pick up the infectious virus on their skin. However, they will not be infected unless they pass this particle into their body through their nose, eyes or lips. This is why we have been asked to avoid touching our faces.

    So, standing more than 1.5 metres back from an ill person means we are using distance as a barrier and do not need PPE. If you are talking to someone you support from the door to their room you do not need PPE.

    If you are within 1.5 metres of a person who is suspected or confirmed to have COVID-19 you need PPE for contact and droplet precautions. This includes a:

    • surgical face mask
    • gloves
    • eye protection
    • gown.

     

    Staff working in a Residential Facility must change their PPE and perform hand hygiene after contact with any person they are supporting who is suspected or confirmed to have COVID-19 or when moving from one room to another.

Avoid making aerosols – no nebulisers!

The large particle droplets as described previously account for most of the transmission of COVID-19.

Far less commonly, an ill person will be in a situation, or undergoing a procedure in hospital, that makes small particle aerosols. These small particles are able to float around in the air and can be breathed in by others far away. Measles is spread this way which is why it is so infectious.

A nebuliser is used to transfer medicine into mist for a person to breath in. A nebuliser creates dangerous aerosols. Nebulisers should never be used during the covid-19 outbreak. A spacer that holds inhalant material such as Ventolin is a suitable alternative.

Excessive coughing, aerosols and N95 masks

A person who is coughing excessively, might make aerosols.

If a person is coughing excessively:

  • Talk to the local public health unit or infection control specialist about how to use N95 masks.
  • Get good air circulation in the room. If possible open a window, keep an exhaust fan in the bathroom going all the time.
  • If possible, wear a N95 mask that has been fit tested when entering the room, along with gloves, a gown and eye protection.

Putting on your PPE

Ensuring that PPE is fitted and removed in the correct order is important because it protects you from accidental contact with viruses and infectious diseases.

Hand hygiene should always be performed before putting on PPE.

The correct order for putting on PPE is:

  1. Put on your gown, fully covering your torso from neck to knees, arms to end of wrists, and wrapped around the back. Fasten at the back of neck and waist.
  2. Put your mask on and make sure it is fitted properly. Secure ties or elastic bands at middle of head and neck. Fit the flexible band to the bridge of your nose. Fit Snug to face and below chin. If someone is excessively coughing, you will need to wear a N95 mask over your other mask.
  3. Fit your protective eyewear or goggles. Place them over your face and eyes and adjust to fit.
  4. Put on your gloves, extend to cover wrist of gown.

Removing your PPE

PPE should be removed in a manner that prevents contamination of the staff member’s clothing, hands and environment.

Hand hygiene should be performed after removing and discarding each item of PPE.

The correct order for removing PPE is:

  1. Remove your gloves by grasping the outside of the glove with your opposite hand, peel off. Hold the removed glove in your remaining gloved hand. Slide your fingers under the remaining glove at the wrist. Peel off the glove and over the first glovet. Discard gloves in a waste container.
  2. Remove your protective eyewear or goggles, handling them only by the headband or earpieces.
  3. Remove your gown by unfastening the ties. Pull away from your neck and shoulders, touching only the inside of the gown. Turn the gown inside out. Fold or roll the gown into a bundle and discard.
  4. Remove your mask. Grasp the bottom then top elastic and remove.

Reflection

What PPE should Ben put on?



Ben is caring for Edna, a 72-year-old lady, who has symptoms of COVID-19 and has been isolated. He is ready to assist Edna with her shower.
What PPE should Ben put on and after he has finished assisting Edna, where should he remove his PPE?

  • Answer...

    When caring for anyone with suspected or confirmed COVID-19, staff should use droplet transmission-based precautions.

    Before Ben enters Edna’s room he should put on a:

    • Gown
    • Surgical mask
    • Eye protection
    • Gloves

     

    After Ben has finished assisting Edna, he should:

    • Remove his gloves, then perform hand hygiene
    • Remove his protective eyewear or goggles
    • Remove his gown
    • Leave Edna’s room, then remove the surgical face mask and perform hand hygiene.

  • Here is a video demonstrating the proper use of PPE

PPE training quiz

Thank you for taking part in Anglicare’s Personal Protective Equipment Training. Please complete the short quiz below to finish the training.

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