Alternative Doffing Strategies to Prevent Healthcare Worker Self-Contamination When Using Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
Condition: Personal Protective Equipment
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      Alternative doffing strategies may help prevent self-contamination of staff members when
      using PPE. The study aims to determine which among the suggested methods in the literature
      that have been proposed as alternatives to the traditional CDC recommended doffing protocol,
      would be most beneficial to reduce healthcare worker self-contamination.
    

Detailed description: 
      A randomized controlled trial of doffing procedures will be conducted by healthcare worker
      volunteers who participate in direct patient care. However, doffing simulations will be
      conducted outside of patient care areas and will not involve patients. Staff participants PPE
      techniques will be evaluated in the controlled environment of the simulation center of the
      Unique Pathogens Unit. The comparison groups will be the Centers for Disease Control (CDC)
      procedure with the addition of a second layer of gloves (double gloving procedure), the CDC
      procedure with additional hand hygiene performed on gloves at key steps (intensified hand
      hygiene procedure), and the one-step roll off of gown and gloves (one-step procedure), with
      the CDC procedure as the control. Participants will be assigned to a doffing protocol
      chronologically starting with the double glove and ending with the control until 100
      volunteers have participated. Additional PPE such as masks and goggles will be removed as
      part of each of the four protocols. Healthcare workers will receive a demonstration of the
      donning/doffing from the study coordinator, and perform a practice donn/doff prior to the
      observed simulation. Only one volunteer with participate in each simulation session. Glogerm
      (TM) will be applied to PPE in a thin stripe and smoothed to evenly with gloved hands to
      cover arms, trunk, and gown hem. S. epidermidis will be applied using colonies diluted in
      solution and spread over gloves, arms, trunk, hem with a swab.
    

Intervention name(s): Double Gloving Procedure; Intensified Hand Hygiene Procedure; One Step Procedure; CDC Procedure
Intervention type(s): Behavioral; Behavioral; Behavioral; Behavioral
Intervention description(s): Participants will doff PPE using a double gloving procedure after coating with Glogerm fluorescent dye +/- staphylococcus epidermidis; Participants will doff PPE using an intensified hand hygiene procedure after coating with Glogerm fluorescent dye +/- staphylococcus epidermidis; Participants will doff PPE using a one-step procedure after coating with Glogerm fluorescent dye +/- staphylococcus epidermidis; Participants will doff PPE using a CDC recommended procedure after coating with Glogerm fluorescent dye +/- staphylococcus epidermidis
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Intervention model description: Participants will be assigned to a doffing protocol chronologically starting with the double glove and ending with the control until 100 volunteers have participated. Only one volunteer with participate in each simulation session.
Masking: None (Open Label)
Primary purpose: Prevention
Keywords: donning; doffing; self-contamination; healthcare workers