Health care and emergency response workers and
COVID-19 safety
- Health care and emergency response workers are at the frontline of any outbreak. As such, they are exposed to hazards at a higher frequency, including:
- Pathogen exposure
- Long working hours
- Psychological stress
- Fatigue
- Violence
- In order to minimize risks, consideration should be given to:
- Completing a risk assessment, to determine if appropriate controls are in place.
- Limiting the movement of patients and limiting the access to staff, non-essential visitors and bystanders.
- Staff, patient and public awareness on:
- Hand hygiene
- Respiratory etiquette (i.e. covering mouth or nose when coughing or sneezing)
- Physical distancing (i.e. at least two meters or greater)
- Signs and symptoms of COVID-19
- Staff training on the proper use and disposal of personal protective equipment (PPE).
- Staff should wear contact and droplet PPE whenever:
- A patient responds YES to any of the following screening questions:
- Is the patient self‐isolating? If yes, why?
- Has the patient been to a gathering of ten people or greater in the last 14 days?
- Are any symptoms of flu‐like illness present?
- If a patient is unable to answer the screening questions
- Entering a room of a patient suspected or confirmed for COVID-19 infection.
- N95 masks should be worn during aerosol generating medical procedures.
- A proper and sufficient supply of PPE, hand hygiene and sanitation/disinfection products.
- Increased incident reporting through a blame free working environment.
- Adherence to work hours and breaks.
- Increased psychological support for staff.
- The availability of masks, tissues and alcohol-based hand rubs at facility entrances.
- Facility signage instructing symptomatic patients to alert staff.
- Procedures to assess, triage and treat patients.
- Patients suspected of having COVID-19 should be:
- Given a procedure mask
- If in a facility, placed in a private room
