54: Healthcare Worker Protection during Pandemic

Q: I’m a healthcare worker who needs to travel between home and the hospital every day. What should I pay attention to?

💁Tracy: The most important things to think about are 3 zones:

Zone 1 - high risk area: How to protect yourself at work, especially if you have to interact with infected patients or work in high risk areas;

Zone 2 - at home or other public places: How to protect your family, friends, and others who you may have to interact with, including the public;

Zone 3 - in between home and work: How to protect yourself and others during your travel, and use your vehicle as a transition zone to achieve the above two goals.

The following are some of the practical considerations for healthcare workers, in addition to workplace guidelines, official guidelines provided by CDC and governmental agencies, and other public sources such as professional associations.

Zone 1 at work:

• Protect yourself with proper PPEs that are used at your work setting, and, 
• Do due diligence to minimize all risks of infection especially unnecessary interactions with those who are infected or potential infected; 
• Keep social distancing with other co-workers, staff, patients and hospital visitors; 
• Reduce interactions with others especially at meal time or group gatherings, or any occasions that you may have to take masks off or with less PPEs; 
• Maintain a dairy or work log, to keep track of and monitor your condition and work situations; this will come handy in case you have to do contact tracing;
• See some of our write ups for other common workplace protection considerations https://tracysguide.blogspot.com/2020/05/41-preventing-covid-19-infection-in.html

• Keep yourself healthy as much as possible, including: 
• Taking adequate rest and maintain high quality sleep; 
• Taking naps during break time if needed; 
• Practice stress reduction and pick effective methods that work for you;
• Eat healthy; 
• Take plenty of liquid on daily basis;
• Take needed supplements, supportive nutrition or trusted herbs, including Vitamin C and D, etc;
• Exercise, spend time in nature and outdoor environment; Exercise such as Yoga and other methods which involve stretching and deep breathing will be helpful;  
• Maintain a positive outlook and optimism; avoid interacting with others who are negative, critical, and energy draining;

• Some practical considerations are:
• If possible, take a shower after you finish work in the healthcare facility before leaving work 
• Cleaning your nose and external ear canal with an alcohol swab, rinse your nose, goggle with saline water or mouth wash; 
• Wear hospital gown, clothing,  under garments (if available) at work; leave them at work for laundry if possible;
• Wear crocs or other easily washable shoes, if those are allowed in the hospital, for easy washing and disinfection;
• Keep items used at work in your work place and disinfect them frequently; minimize items that are brought home or outside workplace as much as possible;

Zone 2: at home or other public places

• Use your garage, car, or an outdoor place outside your entrance door to your home, as a transition zone to disinfect yourself, change clothing, shoes, and other items that are brought from work (see Zone 3 in the next section); 
• If you have a garage or garden at home, you can place a special laundry bag there for your outer clothing (noting the time on the bag to the hour), or hang outside in the Sun or in a well-ventilated area that are not connect to your indoor living space;
• Take a shower immediately after you come back from work (if you haven't done so at work);
• Separate yourself from other family members, including bedroom, bathroom, shower place (if possible), personal items, etc;
• If you consider yourself have a high viral load, start to isolate yourself from others, minimize close distance interaction with other family members and public, especially during close-distance conversation, eating meals together, etc; start to wear a mask at home if needed;
• Frequently disinfect high-touch areas such as kitchen surface, doorknobs, etc, as recommended by CDC and other common sense practices, as what have been included in other chapters of this guide;
• Keep your personal items used at home separate from those at work; minimize clothing and other items that have to be brought back from work, or keep them separate, laundry them separately;
• Minimize your trips to public places such as shopping, libraries, meetings, personal services, entertainments, etc; If you must go to such places, keep social distancing and protect yourself and others; 

Zone 3 - travel or transition zone between home and work

• If you drive to work, treat your car as a transition zone where you can leave the items and clothing at work inside the car;
• Disinfect your car on daily basis, keep car window open for some time to have adequate ventilation, either when it is parked or when driving;
• If you have to take public transportation, protect yourself and others during the trips, practice common sense hygiene, wear protective gears, minimize interactions with others, keep social distancing;  

References:
1.Information for Healthcare Professionals about Coronavirus (COVID-19)
 https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/index.html
2. Infection Control Guidance for Healthcare Professionals about Coronavirus (COVID-19)
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/infection-control.html
3. Healthcare Infection Prevention and Control FAQs for COVID-19
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/infection-control-faq.html

4. Healthcare Workers and Employers
https://www.osha.gov/SLTC/covid-19/healthcare-workers.html

Writing: Suzhen Jiang, Helen Shih; Translation: Xiaoming Dong; Proofreading: Helen Shih, Xiao Luo, Peter Hu; Artwork: Sun Liu

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