Despite current recommendations, many training courses for Ebola virus disease personal protective equipment have yet to be evaluated, according to the American Journal of Infection Control.
That said, researchers conducted a study to evaluate two training programs — one conventional and the other reinforced — for both basic and enhanced PPE.
Under the conventional program, students dressed in PPE while mutually assisting and monitoring each other, then removed their protective clothing under the same conditions. A specialist-trainer intervened in the event of an error in technique or in the order of steps.
Under the reinforced program, the specialist-trainer repeated aloud each of the steps and technical skills or processes necessary to perform the task in accordance with standards. Then, each student executed every step of the donning and removal PPE process with the supervision and assistance of the other student. In the case of an error, the specialist-trainer intervened.
All total, the study included 120 students, broken up in four groups of 30: The basic PPE conventional training group, the enhanced PPE conventional training group, the basic PPE reinforced training group and the enhanced PPE reinforced training group.
All the students received theoretical training, followed by three practical training sessions. Ultimately, the researchers found:
1. The frequency and number of total errors and critical errors decreased significantly over the course of the training sessions in all four groups.
2. The reinforced training program was associated with a greater reduction in the number of total and critical errors.
3. By the third training session, error frequency ranged from 7 percent to 43 percent.
4. Critical error frequency ranged from 3 percent to 40 percent by the last session.
5. The two basic PPE groups had the fewest errors, critical or otherwise.
The results indicate that while both training methods improved students' proficiency with PPE, a number of students are still potentially at risk for Ebola contamination.
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