ABSTRACT
In recognition of an increasing number of high-consequence infectious disease events, a group of subject-matter experts identified core safety principles that can be applied across all donning and doffing protocols for personal protective equipment.
Subject(s)
Personal Protective Equipment , Humans , Infection Control/methods , Cross Infection/prevention & control , Infectious Disease Transmission, Patient-to-Professional/prevention & controlABSTRACT
In the spring of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic limited access for many health professions students to clinical settings amid concerns about availability of appropriate personal protective equipment as well as the desire to limit exposure in these high-risk settings. Furthermore, the pandemic led to a need to cancel clinics and inpatient rotations, with a major impact on training for health professions and interprofessional health delivery, the long-term effects of which are currently unknown. While problematic, this also presents an opportunity to reflect on challenges facing the traditional clinical training paradigm in a rapidly changing and complex health care system and develop sustainable, high-quality competency-based educational models that incorporate rapidly progressing technologies. We call for pilot studies to explore specific simulation-based inpatient and outpatient clinical rotations for professional and interprofessional training.
