Abstract
BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic has brought attention to the importance of correctly using personal protective equipment (PPE). Doffing is a critical phase that increases the risk of contamination of health care workers. Although a gamified electronic learning (e-learning) module has been shown to increase the adequate choice of PPE among prehospital personnel, it failed to enhance knowledge regarding donning and doffing sequences. Adding other training modalities such as face-to-face training to these e-learning tools is therefore necessary to increase prehospital staff proficiency and thus help reduce the risk of contamination.ObjectiveThe aim of this study is to assess the impact of the Peyton 4-step approach in addition to a gamified e-learning module for teaching the PPE doffing sequence to first-year paramedic students.MethodsParticipants will first follow a gamified e-learning module before being randomized into one of two groups. In the control group, participants will be asked to perform a PPE doffing sequence, which will be video-recorded to allow for subsequent assessment. In the experimental group, participants will first undergo face-to-face training performed by third-year students using the Peyton 4-step approach before performing the doffing sequence themselves, which will also be video-recorded. All participants will then be asked to reconstruct the doffing sequence on an online platform. The recorded sequences will be assessed independently by two investigators: a prehospital emergency medicine expert and an infection prevention and control specialist. The assessors will be blinded to group allocation. Four to eight weeks after this first intervention, all participants will be asked to record the doffing sequence once again for a subsequent skill retention assessment and to reconstruct the sequence on the same online platform to assess knowledge retention. Finally, participants belonging to the control group will follow face-to-face training.ResultsThe study protocol has been presented to the regional ethics committee (Req-2020-01340), which issued a declaration of no objection as such projects do not fall within the scope of the Swiss federal law on human research. Study sessions were performed in January and February 2021 in Geneva, and will be performed in April and June 2021 in Bern.ConclusionsThis study should help to determine whether face-to-face training using the Peyton 4-step approach improves the application and knowledge retention of a complex procedure when combined with an e-learning module.International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID)PRR1-10.2196/26927
Highlights
Background and ImportanceThe emergence of COVID-19 has democratized the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) for all health care workers in and outside hospitals [1] in accordance with international recommendations [2]
The study protocol has been presented to the regional ethics committee (Req-2020-01340), which issued a declaration of no objection as such projects do not fall within the scope of the Swiss federal law on human research
This study should help to determine whether face-to-face training using the Peyton 4-step approach improves the application and knowledge retention of a complex procedure when combined with an e-learning module
Summary
Background and ImportanceThe emergence of COVID-19 has democratized the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) for all health care workers in and outside hospitals [1] in accordance with international recommendations [2]. Donning and doffing procedures contribute to the adequate use of PPE and reduce the risk of self-contamination of caregivers [3]. This last point is critical as frontline health care workers are a scarce and essential resource who are at increased risk of being contaminated [4]. One of the strategies that effectively contributes to reducing staff self-contamination is doffing in structured areas dedicated to the removal of PPE [10,11] This strategy is difficult to apply in the prehospital field, where health care workers must often doff PPE on site. Adding other training modalities such as face-to-face training to these e-learning tools is necessary to increase prehospital staff proficiency and help reduce the risk of contamination
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