NCT03192553

Alternative Doffing Strategies to Prevent Healthcare Worker Self-Contamination When Using Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 51 (actual)
• Sponsor: Virginia Commonwealth University · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years – 75 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

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.

Conditions

• Personal Protective Equipment

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Double Gloving Procedure	Participants will doff PPE using a double gloving procedure after coating with Glogerm fluorescent dye +/- staphylococcus epidermidis
BEHAVIORAL	Intensified Hand Hygiene Procedure	Participants will doff PPE using an intensified hand hygiene procedure after coating with Glogerm fluorescent dye +/- staphylococcus epidermidis
BEHAVIORAL	One Step Procedure	Participants will doff PPE using a one-step procedure after coating with Glogerm fluorescent dye +/- staphylococcus epidermidis
BEHAVIORAL	CDC Procedure	Participants will doff PPE using a CDC recommended procedure after coating with Glogerm fluorescent dye +/- staphylococcus epidermidis

Timeline

• Start date: 2017-07-01
• Primary completion: 2017-12-29
• Completion: 2017-12-31
• First posted: 2017-06-20
• Last updated: 2018-03-06

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States