Education, reuse key to making sure personal protective equipment lasts, says doctor

Hundreds of Nova Scotia health-care workers are doing double duty coaching their co-workers in the proper use of personal protective equipment.

It's all part of the province's plan to conserve masks, gloves, gowns and face shields during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

"We really do need to pay close attention to proper education, treating fear, making sure that people have the right things and use the right things at the right times," Dr. Alex Mitchell told CBC's Information Morning on Friday.

Mitchell, a general surgeon, became medical co-lead of a special PPE working group in the middle of March to take stock of the province's stockpile, and to make sure there were enough supplies to make it through the pandemic. 

He said his team quickly realized they needed to train coaches, many of them front-line health-care workers themselves, to share best practices. The coaches are working at hospitals across the province.

They explain to doctors, nurses and other health-care workers about how to get the gear on and off safely and when to use it. 

"We really strongly encourage the use of a personal-risk assessment, in which a health-care worker assesses the situation in front of them and makes the appropriate choice of PPE at that moment," Mitchell said.

Reusing equipment

He said health agencies in the U.S. and Canada have now begun approving "reprocessing methods" so personal protective equipment, like masks, can be reused.

He said N95 masks could be used with proper sanitization and cleaning "anywhere from three-to-10 times instead of throwing it away."

"Reuse has evolved ... as an entirely viable option to help sustain your supply of particular materials," he said. "And we've actually invested significantly in processes and plans to reprocess gear."

The two biggest concerns he hears from health-care workers is whether the equipment will protect them from the virus, and if there will be enough of it, he said. 

In early March, the World Health Organization cautioned that a shortage of PPE worldwide was putting lives at risk. Some provinces are rationing supplies and urging front-line workers to use one mask per shift. 

Earlier this week, Premier Stephen McNeil said he was confident in the province's supply of masks on the same day he announced all long-term care workers would now be required to wear surgical masks around patients. 

"The stock at any given time is generally quite healthy to manage day-to-day operations," Mitchell said. 

Local supply very important

Mitchell said Nova Scotia had a good stockpile of supplies before his group formed last month.

"The challenge is … then making sure that those orders come and that those orders are usable," he said.

The key, said Mitchell, is finding new companies closer to home that can make the supplies. Several Nova Scotia businesses have pivoted during the pandemic to begin making masks, gowns and face shields for front-line workers.

There have been an "enormous number of lessons" throughout the process, Mitchell said, including a better understanding of the importance of local sources.

"I think we learned very quickly with something like this the challenges and the potential instability of what appears to be a very stable global market and how quickly that can unravel," he said. 

On Friday, the province announced a fourth person had died because of COVID-19 as the number of cases surpassed 600.