Improving the safety of healthcare workers during endotracheal intubation in patients in critical care during the COVID-19 pandemic.

• Main Author: Kryspin Mitura
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Towarzystwo Pomocy Doraźnej 2020-10-01
• Series: Critical Care Innovations
• Subjects: covid-19; coronavirus; sars-cov-2; intubation; aerosol; risk; safety.
• Online Access: https://www.irdim.net/cci/3(3)31-36.html

The safety of healthcare workers is a priority for public health protection. This is the basic principle we teach apprentices in paramedics, nursing and medicine. Only a safe specialist can help those in need. The COVID-19 pandemic suddenly appeared and resulted in more attention being paid to the possibility of droplet transmission. Until now, medical staff only paid attention to blood-borne and contact infections, and the air-borne route was underestimated. Current painful experiences raised by SARS-CoV-2 require us to verify the current procedures performance and introduce the principles of safe for the staff to perform endotracheal intubation with appropriate protection measures. Healthcare workers should use barrier surgical caps, goggles or face shield, FFP3 mask, protective gowns, double gloves and utilize proper hand washing technique. Additionally, some protective barriers might be used to minimize aerosol dispersion during endotracheal intubation.