To wonder why a ppe apron was needed in this situation

[Tellmelies65]

Dsis had a mental health assessment involving two doctors and a mental health social worker. They had a mask on and ppe apron. There was no physical contact between them and disis. I would have thought with a shortage they wouldn’t use aprons for things like that.

Was dsis wearing a mask? There is no serious lack of ppe.

We are forever putting on and taking off ppe. Even for non contact.

It's up to them what they felt comfortable wearing I would assume. It's not a waste if they feel that's what they want to wear to be protected. Admittedly my mental health team use no PPE, but I would never judge them if they chose to use anything. I don't even know why this is worth questioning - people can wear whatever they see fit, you don't know their personal circumstances, where they've been before / after etc.

There's not an apron shortage.

absolutely no shortage of ppe currently for use in this situation. where I work this is just the standard ppe used for all visits in a patient's home.

Most trusts have a minimum amount of PPE required for patient facing roles, so that is likely it. In all cases I've had an apron on and never seen shortages of these.

Plus, especially in a mental health capacity (and many others like A&E), you dont know if the patient might suddenly get angry, spit, try to hug you, touch you etc.

If they wear full PPE then they do not have to self isolate in the event they have had contact with someone with COVID-19. I wear full ppe even when not having physical contact and change in between clients. I would be forever having to self isolate otherwise

We use an apron in all situations routinely contact or no contact.

No, I don't know what the apron does either. But it's in our minimum PPE set.

Including the good responses above, you also never know what's going to happen with a patient. That person could be a sneezer, a cougher, a bleeder, a cutter, a vomiter, etc. You might as well physically protect yourself with some kind of barrier.

@Elouera
Plus, especially in a mental health capacity (and many others like A&E), you dont know if the patient might suddenly get angry, spit, try to hug you, touch you etc.

Yes, exactly.

We have to wear apron and gloves in my mental health trust even for routine outpatient appointments with patients we know. It's so stupid and on more than one occasion at the beginning the patients laughed at me and asked if I wanted to take them off. Part of the reason is blanket rules to cover all staff in a trust doing both physical and mental health jobs. And what pps said about risk.

Ppe apron shortage is a myth. What they were wearing is bare minimum and will be in the guidelines for their trust.

Most trusts have a minimum amount of PPE required for patient facing roles

There’s some sort of rule in ours where if you have an arbitarily decreed minimum of protective gear you’re exempt from track and trace.

I believe it applies to all public facing roles, healthcare, police, fire etc. If you wear the PPe and the patient subsequently tests positive you don’t have to isolate.

If there wasn’t this exemption we’d have no healthcare or emergency staff as they’d all be self isolating due to the level of contact.

I have so far refused to wear an apron and I wear gloves as little as possible. Unless your at risk from bodily fluids coming your way, aprons are pointless, same with gloves, - much better to just wash your hands.

It’ll be standard procedure.

Maybe they’re worried if someone coughs there could be covid virus particles landing on their clothes. A plastic apron covers up most of the clothing so minimises the risk. 🤷‍♀️ Potentially a patient could move forward and touch a member of staff?

I have to wear a plastic apron at work when teaching students face to face (uni) even the I don’t touch them. They all have to wear aprons as well. My ds works in a gym and has to wear a plastic apron even though he doesn’t touch anyone.

That is standard minimum PPE for any face to face contact

The science isn't great, but then it isn't for a lot of Covid- related stuff

It’s just procedure. And there isn’t an apron shortage afaik - the shortage in PPE was for clinical grade masks.

Why on earth would you worry about that ?!

I would've thought it was obvious.... no?

She got upset by it as she thought they were just wearing it to assess her.