Assessing personal protective equipment compliance in a polish healthcare setting during the COVID-19 pandemic – A pilot case study

Objective: The purpose of this study is to identify failures in proper Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) usage in a healthcare hospital environment to enhance PPE compliance through proper donning and doffing procedures.Methods: We used naturalistic observation (shadowing) of PPE donning and doffing by healthcare medical staff in their hospital work setting to identify non-conformities to compliant donning and doffing of PPE.Results: We found an average of 1.84 non-conformances per healthcare worker across the donning procedures and 2.06 non-conformances in the doffing procedures per healthcare provider. Nurses experienced 1.94 average non-conformances in the donning procedures, while physicians average 1.75 non-conformances. Nurses experienced 2.29 average doffing nonconformances, while physicians averaged 1.85 average doffing non-conformances during the study. PPE compliance is critical to protect both healthcare workers and patients in the healthcare setting, as well as building a culture of safety.Research implications: Appropriate training and compliance should be performed to ensure appropriate PPE donning and doffing protocols are adhered to, so that it reduces the transmission of disease and infections. Future studies will explore the environmental, cultural and operational factors that contribute to PPE compliance in healthcare.Conclusions: This is the first study to quantify donning and doffing errors of personal protective compliance within the realm of environmental and cultural impacts.