Authors
Brown-Johnson, CatiVilendrer, Stacie
Heffernan, Mary Beth
Winter, Shira
Khong, Thanh
Reidy, Jennifer
Asch, Steven M.
UMass Chan Affiliations
Department of Family Medicine and Community HealthDivision of Palliative Care, UMass Memorial Medical Center
Document Type
Journal ArticlePublication Date
2020-05-14Keywords
COVID-19PPE
personal protective equipment
patient care
effectiveness
Health Communication
Health Services Administration
Health Services Research
Infectious Disease
Mental and Social Health
Patient Safety
Psychiatry and Psychology
Psychological Phenomena and Processes
Virus Diseases
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
The use of personal protective equipment (PPE) has skyrocketed, as providers don masks, glasses, and gowns to protect their eyes, noses, and mouths from COVID-19. Yet these same facial features express human individuality, and are crucial to nonverbal communication. Isolated ICU patients may develop "post intensive-care syndrome," which mimics PTSD with sometimes debilitating consequences. While far from a complete solution, PPE Portraits (disposable portrait picture stickers - 4" x 5") have the potential to humanize care. Preparing for a larger effectiveness evaluation on patient and provider experience, we collected initial qualitative implementation insights during Spring 2020's chaotic surge preparation. Front-line providers reported more comfort with patient interactions while wearing PPE Portraits: "It makes it feel less like a disaster zone [for the patient]." A brief pilot showed signs of significant adoption: a participating physician requested PPE Portraits at their clinic, shift nurses had taken PPE Portraits with them to inpatient services, and masked medical assistant team-members requested PPE Portraits to wear over scrubs. We believe PPE Portraits may support patient care and health, and even potentially healthcare team function and provider wellness. While we await data on these effects, we hope hospitals can use our findings to speed their own implementation testing.Source
Brown-Johnson C, Vilendrer S, Heffernan MB, Winter S, Khong T, Reidy J, Asch SM. PPE Portraits-a Way to Humanize Personal Protective Equipment. J Gen Intern Med. 2020 May 14:1–3. doi: 10.1007/s11606-020-05875-2. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 32410125; PMCID: PMC7224350. Link to article on publisher's site
DOI
10.1007/s11606-020-05875-2Permanent Link to this Item
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14038/27528PubMed ID
32410125Related Resources
ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1007/s11606-020-05875-2