75% of the UK’s NHS workers are women. But average hospital protective-wear designed for the average man

[SerendipityJane]

womensagenda.com.au/latest/75-of-the-uks-nhs-workers-are-women-but-average-hospital-protective-wear-designed-for-the-average-man/

Seventy five per cent of NHS workers in the UK are women, a figure that rises to 90 percent for nurses. And yet the personal protective equipment (PPE) currently being used across the country’s 1,257 hospitals were designed for the “size and shape of male bodies”.

Yeah. Even in the simple things these male-default choices. My medic pal is considering chopping all her lovely long hair off because she can't get it to fit under the disposable PPE surgical caps they get issued.

That should read: *even in the simple things these male- default assumptions and decisions make life difficult for women.

But logically it's better to be too big than too small, isn't it.

If we're talking gowns, maybe @waltzingparrot (although, trip hazard?). But this was on Women's Hour today too, and and they were talking about masks, and one doctor having to tighten it so much that it caused ulcers in her skin .

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000hgh7

It's the first item on the programme.

It may be because outside of medicine the majority of people that wear ppe are men. Although I’d have thought that it must surely be manufactured for women as well.

On the too big better than to small thing, not really. Gloves that are too big will impede your ability to work with your hands, and other equipment that's too big may slip and need to be moved back into place. which really isn't something you want to be doing all the time in this scenario.

I've worn a N95/FFP3 mask and they've been too big for me. What that means is that the mask sits so high on my face it's almost covering my eyes, and if I was wearing protective goggles would be interfering with those. If I pull it down even slightly, the bottom part then cuts right into my throat, making it difficult to breathe. The same mask on my DH fits fine, and he can put his on and be good to go. I'm constantly fiddling with mine. In a virus protection scenario that's a big problem.

This is a real problem in lots of different industries and professions.

One size fits all means average man size.

The consequences are non trivial.

My medic pal is considering chopping all her lovely long hair off because she can't get it to fit under the disposable PPE surgical caps they get issued.

Men can have long hair too and many male medics are shaving off beards they’ve had for years. Hair will grow back. A mask not physically fitting a smaller, female face is, however a significant problem.

Gloves are available in all sizes though.

I used to have this problem with scrubs (retired doc). They’re all cut to fit men, so the trousers are straight up and down - they don’t flare out to cover female hips. I had to take a bigger size than my waist required, and pull it all in with the drawstrings- but then the legs were too long and I was tripping up.
At the time, just an inconvenience, but ill fitting PPE can endanger life.

Staff in my dept are all tested yearly to ensure our ffp3 masks fit. A few female staff always fail. These were good quality masks which are now dangerously low in stock.
We have had the army in my hospital doing fit tests on the staff for various alternative ffp3 masks. Most of the women are failing due to the masks just not fitting our faces. The only men that are failing are those with beards. This means only a small number of staff can work in certain areas ( we're radiographers) so putting those staff at higher risk.

Surely it's the masks start fail rather than the people!

Reminds me of this fascinating article I read last year, which says that the entire world was designed do men.

www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/feb/23/truth-world-built-for-men-car-crashes

• designed for men

Not surprised unfortunately.

The brilliant book Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez is all about the "default (white) man" model. It makes my blood boil.

I saw a tweet where someone who designs PPE tried to refute this, by showing the standard dummy heads they used to design masks.

4 were definitely male, one was ambiguous (presumably supposed to be the woman).

The dude was like - look, there's a woman model, and seemed to be unable to recognise that there were different sizes for the men, but only one for the 'woman' as if he'd never even realised women came in different sizes too!

A nurse friend of mine recently failed her FFP3 mask test. She's tall enough to be in the normal height range for men rather than women, which again shows that male and female bodies are different even if you account for the average difference in height.

What that means is that she can't be deployed to certain roles, roles which are critical at this point and for which they need as many people as they can get, for those still in the "surely it doesn't matter if the equipment is designed for men" camp.

I feel it's slightly less scandalous when the numbers are examined. The main groups routinely requiring PPE (surgical/emergency) are male dominated professions so manufacturing and stockpiling will be based largely on those proportions. I understand that it could be argued that stockpiles should take into account outbreaks like C-19 but I also think that should be balanced against the financial pressures of allowing a huge amount of supplies to be lost to expiry.

source:
digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/find-data-and-publications/supplementary-information/2018-supplementary-information-files/analysis-of-the-representation-of-women-across-the-hospital-and-community-health-services-workforce

Are you under the impression that nurses aren't in attendance at surgical and emergency procedures? Or do you just think that they're not important enough to require PPE?

They aren't male dominated, there are just a few more men than is usual for healthcare. Women still need PPE stockpiled for them.

And FFP3s are required on wards in flu season or for TB, so it really isn't just for surgery or emergency departments anyway.

They aren't male dominated, there are just a few more men than is usual for healthcare. Women still need PPE stockpiled for them.

Doesn't the greater number of female healthcare professionals in general practice exaggerate this difference?

Or do you just think that they're not important enough to require PPE?

Again, nursing is a female dominated profession, and nurses are needed in both surgical and emergency situations. If you somehow forgot that, well, that's your own issue and not the fault of the person pointing it out to you.

If you somehow forgot that, well, that's your own issue and not the fault of the person pointing it out to you.

I took it into account, I just thought it was strange to assume that I didn't care about nurses receiving PPE but, as you said, that's your own issue. On the issue at hand, it seems like the best way to resolve it in the long term is to create incentives to better balance the sex distribution across professions.