SIG Covid-19 Brasil ends first week of activities with discussion about the use of PPE
SIG Covid-19 Brasil, created by emergency by the University Telemedicine Network (RUTE) to deepen the discussion about the new coronavirus, ended the first week of activities this Friday, 3/27, with a presentation about Personal Protective Equipment. At the meeting, the importance of adequate and conscious use of the equipment by health professionals and other workers, who act in units in the front line in the combat to the epidemic, was approached.
Qualification and training
The nurse Mariana de Jesus Meszaros, master´s degree student, responsible for the Nursing Section in Continued Education at Hospital das Clínicas da Unicamp (HC-Unicamp), presented the strategy used by the institution to qualify and make aware around 4 thousand collaborators, who work in the unit, about the adequate protocols to use PPE.
“Being able to qualify this big number of professionals, from the doctors to the cleaning team, in this short period time is our biggest challenge. We are counting on partnerships, which have been very important to speed the process up. We are making a rational use campaign because we do not know for how long we will fight coronavirus, so that there is no lack of such equipment for our professionals in the future”, Mariana Meszaros told.
The planning includes sending videos with instructions to the HC-Unicamp collaborators, distribution of folders and fixing of illustrative banners with the care to be taken at the time of gowning and de-gowning, which are the most critical moments regrading infection. In addition, the training is also done in person, which have made the professionals more confident.
“We have a satisfactory feedback from the trained collaborators, thy feel safer. It is important for everyone to know what the transmission mode is and how contamination happens or not. The live training made the team calmer in relation to care, reducing the initial anxiety”, the nurse explained.
The infectologist Prof. Dr. Cristieni Rodrigues spoke about the experience in Instituto do Coração do Hospital das Clínicas da Faculdade de Medicina da USP (Incor-FMUSP) and other private health unit, where she works. According to her, the doctors and the health professionals learn, at early stage, in the universities, how to use PPI properly, but the stress created by the arrival of the pandemic in the country created anxiety, which disturbed the performance of the procedures at the beginning.
“First, we have to remember that the gowning is not new. The precaution and isolation measures exist since long ago. We have knowledge and know how diseases transmit in most cases. Nothing is new. But every time we have a new disease, when we are afraid, it is difficult for us to assimilate. Everyone desperate thinking that it is something different. I gown myself to avoid being infected and transmitting to other people. It is a new pathology the entire world fears and we understand that”, Cristhieni said.
Alignment is fundamental
The infectologist pointed out the importance of a definition of adequate protocols for each health unit. Although there are little differences among the procedures adopted in each of them, it is fundamental there to be a guideline in each place to be followed by the professionals, who work there. She pointed out that the word at this moment shall be union, in any sector of the Brazilian society, not only in health.
“I wanted to speak about the importance for us, health professionals, to be aligned. Because it is not just a job, we have to notice the humanitarian action we are getting into, its grandiosity. We face people. I lived the Aids and H1N1 epidemics, I already found very complicated. I have never thought I would face such epidemic. I live this moment as a game changer in our union as a country, among the people. Of course, we will have economic issues, which are happening in every country, but we have to think about the union of the people so we can work coherently, without panic, carefully, and in human way”, Dr. Cristhieni ended.
A Brazilian radiologist, who works in Milan, will participate in the next session
In the next session of SIG Covid-19 Brasil, on Monday, 3/30, the radiologist Fabiane Barbosa, a Brazilian who lives and works in Milan, will participate. She will tell the experience lived in Italy, one of the countries that are suffering in the combat to the new coronavirus the most, with more than eight thousand deaths.
The SIG Covid-19 Brasil sessions are held on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. The meetings are destined to doctors and researchers in the health area.