ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic thrust nursing into the spotlight, not only for the heroism that was on display each day on the frontlines while providing care to an extraordinarily high volume of critically ill patients, but also for the chaos and danger that surrounded the profession by providing this care in unsafe working conditions due to a lack of personal protective equipment (PPE). During the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a litany of system failures on federal, state, local, and organizational levels that left nurses and other frontline healthcare workers frequently exposed to a poorly understood and deadly infectious disease. The scope of this project was to identify areas of system failures in the supply and delivery of PPE, to examine issues with guidance versus regulation in providing protection for healthcare workers, and to evaluate enforcement both before and during the pandemic. Extensive research was completed on the nation's PPE supply chain infrastructure, existing workplace safety standards, and the real-time growing body of evidence gleaned from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Based on increased production and availability of necessary PPE early in this project, the scope was prioritized and narrowed to focus on both emergency and permanent Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standards to reduce workplace morbidity and mortality of healthcare workers. This evidence collected was utilized to develop a policy paper, in partnership with an American Nurses Association (ANA) Senior Policy Advisor, that provided recommendations for enforceable emergency and permanent airborne infectious disease standards to were necessary to mitigate further risks from COVID-19 for all frontline healthcare providers, as well as to provide protections from future threats. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)
ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic thrust nursing into the spotlight, not only for the heroism that was on display each day on the frontlines while providing care to an extraordinarily high volume of critically ill patients, but also for the chaos and danger that surrounded the profession by providing this care in unsafe working conditions due to a lack of personal protective equipment (PPE). During the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a litany of system failures on federal, state, local, and organizational levels that left nurses and other frontline healthcare workers frequently exposed to a poorly understood and deadly infectious disease. The scope of this project was to identify areas of system failures in the supply and delivery of PPE, to examine issues with guidance versus regulation in providing protection for healthcare workers, and to evaluate enforcement both before and during the pandemic. Extensive research was completed on the nation's PPE supply chain infrastructure, existing workplace safety standards, and the real-time growing body of evidence gleaned from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Based on increased production and availability of necessary PPE early in this project, the scope was prioritized and narrowed to focus on both emergency and permanent Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standards to reduce workplace morbidity and mortality of healthcare workers. This evidence collected was utilized to develop a policy paper, in partnership with an American Nurses Association (ANA) Senior Policy Advisor, that provided recommendations for enforceable emergency and permanent airborne infectious disease standards to were necessary to mitigate further risks from COVID-19 for all frontline healthcare providers, as well as to provide protections from future threats. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Airborne transmission diseases can transfer long and short distances via sneezing, coughing, and breathing. These airborne repertory particles can convert to aerosol particles and travel with airflow. During the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, many surgeries have been delayed, increasing the demand for establishing a clean environment for both patient and surgical team in the operating room. METHODS: This study aims to investigate the hypothesis of implementing a protective curtain to reduce the transmission of infectious contamination in the surgical microenvironment of an operating room. In this regard, the spread of an airborne transmission disease from the patient was evaluated, consequently, the exposure level of the surgical team. In the first part of this study, a mock surgical experiment was established in the operating room of an academic medical center in Norway. In the second part, the computational fluid dynamic technique was performed to investigate the spread of airborne infectious diseases. Furthermore, the field measurement was used to validate the numerical model and guarantee the accuracy of the applied numerical models. RESULTS: The results showed that the airborne infectious agents reached the breathing zone of the surgeons. However, using a protective curtain to separate the microenvironment between the head and lower body of the patient resulted in a 75% reduction in the spread of the virus to the breathing zone of the surgeons. The experimental results showed a surface temperature of 40 ËC, which was about a 20 ËC increase in temperature, at the wound area using a high intensity of the LED surgical lamps. Consequently, this temperature increase can raise the patient's thermal injury risk. CONCLUSION: The novel method of using a protective curtain can increase the safety of the surgical team during the surgery with a COVID-19 patient in the operating room.
ABSTRACT
Featured ApplicationPersonalized ventilation systems for improving air quality around passengers in confined vehicles, such as airplanes.In the last decade, there has been an increase in ease and affordability of air travel in terms of mobility for people all around the world. Airplane passengers may experience different risks of contracting airborne infectious diseases onboard aircraft, such as influenza or severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS-CoV-1 and SARS-CoV-2), due to nonuniform airflow patterns inside the airplane cabin or proximity to an infected person. In this paper, a novel approach for reducing the risk of contracting airborne infectious diseases is presented that uses a low-momentum personalized ventilation system with a protective role against airborne pathogens. Numerical simulations, supported by nonintrusive experimental measurements for validation purposes, were used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed system. Simulation and experimental results of the low-momentum personalized ventilation system showed the formation of a microclimate around each passenger with cleaner and fresher air than produced by the general mixing ventilation systems.
ABSTRACT
Tracer gas experiments were conducted in a 158 m3 room with overhead supply diffusers to study dispersion of contaminants from simulated speaking in physically distanced meeting and classroom configurations. The room was contained within a 237 m3 cell with open plenum return to the HVAC system. Heated manikins at desks and a researcher operating the tracer release apparatus presented 8-9 thermal plumes. Experiments were conducted under conditions of no forced air and neutral, cooled, or heated air supplied at 980-1100 cmh, and with/out 20% outdoor air. CO2 was released at the head of one manikin in each experiment to simulate small (<5 µm diameter) respiratory aerosols. The metric of exposure relative to perfectly mixed (ERM) is introduced to quantify impacts, based on measurements at manikin heads and at three heights in the center and corners of the room. Chilled or neutral supply air provided good mixing with ERMs close to one. Thermal stratification during heating produced higher ERMs at most manikins: 25% were ≥2.5 and the highest were >5× perfectly mixed conditions. Operation of two within-zone air cleaners together moving ≥400 cmh vertically in the room provided enough mixing to mitigate elevated exposure variations.