Physiologic and other effects and compliance with long-term respirator use among medical intensive care unit nurses

• Published in: American journal of infection control Vol. 41; no. 12; pp. 1218 - 1223
• Main Authors: Rebmann, Terri, PhD, RN, CIC, Carrico, Ruth, PhD, RN, CIC, Wang, Jing, PhD
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY Mosby, Inc 01-12-2013; Elsevier; Mosby-Year Book, Inc; Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc. Published by Mosby, Inc
• Subjects: Adult; Anatomy & physiology; Biological and medical sciences; Compliance; Disaster; Effects; Epidemiology. Vaccinations; Filtering face piece respirator; General aspects; Guideline Adherence; Human viral diseases; Humans; Infection Control; Infectious Disease; Infectious diseases; Influenza; Intensive care; Intensive Care Units; Life support systems; Long term health care; Longitudinal Studies; Male; Medical sciences; Middle Aged; N95 respirator; Nurses; Nursing care; Pandemic; Preparedness; Ventilators, Mechanical - adverse effects; Ventilators, Mechanical - statistics & numerical data; Viral diseases; Viral diseases of the respiratory system and ent viral diseases; United States > US; Filtering face piece respirator; Preparedness; Pandemic; Disaster; Influenza; N95 respirator; Compliance; Health care staff; Check; Long term; Intensive care unit; Infection; Prevention; Viral disease; Face; Nurse
• ISSN: 0196-6553; 1527-3296
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ajic.2013.02.017

Background Long-term use of respiratory protection may be necessary, but compliance may be low, and physiologic effects have not been well evaluated. Methods Ten nurses participated; physiologic effects, subjective symptoms, and compliance with wearing an N95 alone or with a surgical mask overlay were assessed. Longitudinal analysis based on multivariate linear regression models assessed changes in outcome variables (CO2 , O2 , heart rate, perceived comfort items, compliance measures, and others). Analyses compared changes over time, and compared wearing only an N95 to wearing an N95 with a surgical mask overlay. Results Most nurses (90%, n = 9) tolerated wearing respiratory protection for two 12-hour shifts. CO2  levels increased significantly compared with baseline measures, especially when comparing an N95 with a surgical mask to only an N95, but changes were not clinically relevant. Perceived exertion; perceived shortness of air; and complaints of headache, lightheadedness, and difficulty communicating also increased over time. Almost one-quarter (22%) of respirator removals were due to reported discomfort. N95 adjustments increased over time, but other compliance measures did not vary by time. Compliance increased on day 2, except for adjustments, touching under the N95, and eye touches. Conclusion Long-term use of respiratory protection did not result in any clinically relevant physiologic burden for health care personnel, although many subjective symptoms were reported. N95 compliance was fairly high.