NETEC has you Covered: PPE in Long-Term Care

Hello, and welcome to Transmission Interrupted.

My name is Jill Morgan, and I'm an ICU nurse here at Emory university

hospital in Atlanta, Georgia.

those of you not yet familiar with NETEC, our mission is to increase

the capability of the United States public health and healthcare system

to safely and effectively manage individuals with suspected and confirmed

special pathogens, in cooperation with the CDC and funded by ASPR the

Assistant Secretary for Preparedness.

On today's episode, we're going to talk about one of my favorite topics,

personal protective equipment.

I became passionate about PPE when my home facility was asked to care for an Ebola

patient, and I realized how little I knew about these pieces and parts and processes

that were supposed to protect me.

But today I'm very happy to have with me, Carly Snider from Nebraska, and

we're going to talk about a different group of people who need protection,

the staff at longterm care facilities.

and we mean anyone who works in assisted living, skilled nursing, nursing

homes, or residential care facilities.

So thanks for joining us.

And let's get started with this episode of Transmission Interrupted.

NETEC has you Covered: PPE for Long-Term Care.

Carly, tell everybody a little bit about yourself.

Well, first of all, thanks Jill.

For having me.

I'm just as e xcited about PPE as you are.

So I guess it's good.

We're on this together.

I am actually a community nurse here in Omaha, Nebraska.

I work at an assisted living and memory care called House

of Hope Alzheimer's Care.

We also have House of Hope, Assisted Living and Royal Oaks Assisted Living.

We are a nonprofit organization that primarily serve seniors 65 plus, and

we also have a sister company called Florence Home Skilled Nursing and Rehab.

So I'm really excited to be apart of NETEC as a subject matter expert,

and to be here today to share my knowledge and expertise with others.

We know that PPE may not be everyone's favorite topic.

We're just special that way, but it is a topic that we think

doesn't get enough attention.

People assume it's easy or that it's obvious or what you use or how you

use it is just known intuitively, or that you learned it in school.

But none of that's really true.

And while people think that things like needle sticks are the biggest

risk from an infection standpoint, that healthcare workers have.

Over 3000 healthcare workers acquire tuberculosis at work each year.

And there are an awful lot of other infectious diseases we don't want

for ourselves or to carry home to our families, whether that's influenza or

RSV or a herpes virus like shingles or chicken pox, CMV, MRSA, and now COVID.

So healthcare workers in long-term care are delivering care and putting

themselves in close contact with all sorts of infectious diseases that

don't need a needle stick to make us sick, that's where PPE comes in.

This resource is for any time you need PPE, not just for COVID.

Carly and a group of other long-term care . Experts have helped us put together a

guide for PPE that is specifically aimed at all of the various people that need

protection in all of the various settings that the longterm care term encompasses.

And you can find the link to that resource in the show notes for this episode.

Yes, we have a great team that has developed a new

and easy way to follow education.

It's a resource about basically everything PPE and we really built

this, resource keeping long-term care communities in mind, such as

assisted livings, like where I get to work, skilled nursing and rehabs,

home care, and even hospice services.

This resource breaks down everything PPE from your basic knowledge, the

chain of infection we provide examples of PPE, how to train the trainer,

and my favorite, the expert tips.

Carly.

Tell me how you've made this work in your facility.

who did you need to convince or who'd you have to get buy-in from,

in order to put this into action.

Jill, honestly, it really didn't take a whole lot of convincing.

I was able to help build this PPE resource and I really believe in it.

So I brought it to the attention of my boss at my community, and also to

the attention of our company's CEO, and wallah, they loved it, and

made it into a mandatory training for all of our staff in all areas.

And when, I mean, all staff I'm including your receptionist,

your maintenance crew, dietary.

Obviously nursing, your nurse aides or med aides, and your nurses, housekeeper

and even management and administration.

It is part of everyone's training in our communities, including our new hires.

It's easy to follow.

You can use it in a variety of ways.

You can even access it online for education and training

purposes, or you can even print it off and use it in a training.

Yeah, we absolutely understand that

some folks are saying why now.

I've been using PPE for years.

What new is there for you to tell me?

But we think that this is the perfect time that we finally have the time to get this.

No one's job should make them sick.

We want every worker in long-term care to know when and how and

what to use to protect themselves.

that might mean that we need to unlearn and relearn.. We may have developed some

bad habits or some sloppy habits, things that can compromise our clothing, our

hands or the environment we work in.

It's important to understand that the methods and the habits and the processes

around PPE are just as important as the items you're provided with.

So our PPE when used correctly reduces the chance that.

We move these infectious diseases around, like around our facility, to

our computers, to our nurses stations in break rooms, but also to our

clothes and our cars and our families.

These are risks that we can't see, right?

One study looked at people, caring for folks with like a respiratory illness.

Sound familiar?

And found that when they took their PPE off, 31% of their

gloves had that virus on it.

21% of their isolation gowns had virus on it.

And 12% of their face masks had this active virus from the patient that

they were just caring for on them.

it's really important that you know how to take those pieces off and

leave those germs where they belong.

We don't want you to be that person that carries it around and potentially

contaminate your workplace, or brings something home to your family

I agree, a hundred percent.

I really feel like PPE as just as important now as it was before.

We've always had PPE around, but really you can say over the last year, year

and a half especially in long-term care communities, we're using more

PPE than we probably ever have before.

Especially more types, we're used to using gloves on a daily basis, but who

had ever heard of really wearing goggles or face shields and gowns on the regular,

right, in assisted living As we're using it more, it's become an everyday

staple in our lives and health care.

And, I feel that we've been seeing staff in, in all different situations

and scenarios becoming more complacent, maybe not being as diligent with their

PPE because they're getting burnout or they're tired of wearing it, or maybe they

don't even know how to wear it properly.

So we really need to approach it from a team effort really

lead by example, training, the trainers, training your staff.

And then comping them out, being there in the situation that's

occurring and observing it in action.

And if somebody improperly removes their gloves step in right there

and say, can I show you this might be the proper way to do this.

And our resource will show you and help teach you how to do that.

Yeah, I think it's a really good point that

with this increased use of PPE.

Across the country mask, use hand hygiene, people carrying hand sanitizer with

them, all the things that have been put in place in the last year and a half.

actually seen a tremendous decrease in a lot of other respiratory viruses as well.

Carly, as we head into sort of Thanksgiving and right

now, big holiday season.

Do you have any special concerns like about the safety of

long-term care staff right now?

I know a lot of us are excited about the holidays coming up

and most of us in the long-term care world, we're open to visitation,

which is absolutely awesome for our residents and for families.

And.

It's really important to educate our staff in all of these settings about the

proper PPE use, including hand hygiene, during the holidays, we know there's

plenty of parties and gatherings and family and friends visiting, which

if you're like me, I'm a hugger.

I love to hug my family and friends, and I love to hug my.

And they love to hug, and be in close proximity especially those

that maybe haven't had an opportunity to see their loved ones in a while.

Right.

This may be the one time a year where they've actually

going to be able to see them.

And so we want to make sure that that happens, but we also want to make sure

that we may not always know who we come into contact with or who have they

been around, what they've potentially been exposed to, and so it's really

important for our communities to know the proper steps to take to protect

their staff, as well as the visitors and family members and friends that come in.

And, we want to be able to enjoy the holidays with those we share

it with, but we can also remain safe and protect ourselves.

Carly, you've curly made this, work in your workplace.

and I know that I came to be a PPE, true believer through a Bola, tell me

why you went to all this trouble and.

how you got to be such an enthusiastic supporter of

Well, my role as community nurse, in assisted living has been

nothing but evolving, especially over the last year and a half when

we heard that term COVID right.

And, just know from experience in all my years of nursing, that education

and training is so important, not only for your nursing staff, right?

It takes a community, you really need to teach and train and

educate your staff as a whole.

and we all care about each and every one of our residents and in our staff

members and their family members and visitors and working in a community

we're working with vulnerable adults, including those that may have, cognition

or a memory impairment of some kind.

So it's really imperative that all staff know the proper way to don

and doff and handle PPE safely, from every day use to if you have an

outbreak or an illness come about.

This PPE resource can really be used as an educational tool and a training guide.

It's easy to read and follow.

Easy to understand and share.

We have implemented pictures.

Things like do's and don'ts, proper donning and doffing of

your masks and gowns and gloves.

How to train the trainer, and one of my favorites, the expert tips.

So it's truly a great resource that can be used by anyone that's working with PPE.

So this may mean it's staff or volunteers, even family members

could utilize this resource.

And our team that is working with NETEC continues to build and

expand on other projects to help to continue those working in long-term

care, communities and services.

So stay tuned for more.

I think that's great.

And I think you're right, that when many people think about the U.S. healthcare

system, sometimes long-term care.

Isn't part of what they think about.

And we really want to bring it back into the fold and understand that an

awful lot of care is delivered in these situations, we hope that you will do

whatever it takes to keep yourself safe, to know what and when, and how to use PPE

correctly so that any of the icky stuff you encounter doesn't go home with you.

All of you in long-term care or doing a hard, exhausting and frustrating work.

It shouldn't be dangerous as well.

Thank you so much, Carly, for joining us today to discuss PPE and long-term care.

And please, we hope you'll check out the show notes for the link

to the PPE resource that Carly and her group put together, and that

we've been talking about today.

I appreciate you guys having me.

And thank you so much.

PPE really is an important topic.

That's affecting all of us in healthcare and in long-term care.

And I really hope everybody that tunes in has learned a little bit more today

about this great resource and they will consider checking it out, sharing it.

And, long-term care communities, we got this and all the

surrounding services around us.

Use this resource, please.

So you can check the show notes for the link to this PPE resource.

We've talked about today, as well as some other references.

Thank you so much for tuning into this episode.

We hope you'll join us for future episodes on a wide range of topics from

healthcare workers, safety, personal protective equipment, and more about

infectious diseases of all kinds.

If you have any questions for us or ideas for future shows, please

contact us at info@netec.org.

Or you can find us on the web at netec.org/podcast, or you can

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We hope to see you next time on Transmission Interrupted