Introduction: Simulation, Telehealth, and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
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Telehealth is a way to provide medical care using the phone or other technology. It allows patients and providers to connect and provide care while being physically separate.
In this case, you will be a telehealth provider, interacting virtually with this patient who is in a remote clinic.
What is medical simulation?
Medical simulation is a way to train healthcare providers using simulated patients (either mannequins or actors) to practice essential skills, such as taking a medical history, doing a physical exam, or delivering news to a patient. It allows healthcare providers and/or students to learn in a safe zone where no real patients can be harmed. It does require some suspension of disbelief (or pretending like the case is a real-life situation) in order to get the most out of the scenario.
You will be part of a medical simulation case by completing this curriculum, where you act as the student-doctor to diagnose and treat this patient.
In this scenario, the patient is reporting to a hospital emergency room. To limit the exposure of hospital staff to the patient, only the nurse and attending doctor will interact with the patient, but they are very busy taking care of many patients. You are a team of doctors-in-training who will interact with the patient over telehealth and will be key to diagnosing and treating the patient.
PPE is equipment meant to protect the wearer from illness or injury due to occupational hazards -- for example, protect hospital workers from infectious diseases, construction workers from falling objects, or factory workers from dangerous chemicals. It is important to keep people safe and healthy.
N95 mask - protect yourself
Able to filter 95% of aerosolized virus particles from the air - protects wearer from airborne viruses
Tight fitting
Needs to be professionally fitted (e.g. cannot wear with beard)
Surgical mask - protect others
Protects wearer from large airborne droplets and splashes
Protects others from the wearer’s respiratory emissions
Loose fitting
Does not filter small viral particles and air is able to leak in around edge of mask
When user inhales, may still contract airborne viruses
Cloth mask - protect others
Similar function to surgical mask with less information known about its effectiveness
Gloves
Gowns
Goggles
Face shield
Shoe covers
Full body suits
Respirators
N95 Masks: hospital workers
Keep healthcare workforce safe from contracting COVID-19 as they work with patients
Surgical face mask: people who are sick
Keep the patient from spreading COVID-19 to others that they interact with
Cloth masks: general public
Slow the spread of the virus and help prevent people who may have the virus and do not know it from transmitting it to others
However, this does not serve as a replacement for physical distancing, handwashing and important safety precautions.
Complete the quiz below before moving on to the next module.
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There is currently a shortage of personal protective equipment around the world. It makes healthcare workers nervous that they will not be able to keep themselves safe when working with patients who are sick. However, there are a lot of efforts to increase the amount of PPE available to healthcare workers -- for example, in Massachusetts, the governor and New England Patriots teamed up to bring into the US for healthcare workers to use. You can help by donating any surgical or N95 masks that you have to hospitals and first responders and helping to make cloth masks for others.
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