PPE Virtual Education Taskforce Teaches Health Care Professionals
Surgical Residents, Faculty Prepare for COVID-19 surge
April 6, 2020
Dr. Aussama Nassar streams a course on proper PPE donning, doffing, and reuse.
As residents of the Bay Area strive to flatten the curve, surgical residents at Stanford are actively preparing for the COVID-19 surge. On Tuesday, March 31st, surgical residents attended a virtual course to educate them on proper donning, doffing and reuse of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).
Dr. Aussama Nassar, a clinical assistant professor in the Division of General Surgery and director of the Surgical Critical Care Fellowship Program, demonstrated proper technique (in accordance with current CDC guidelines) as Dr. Lisa Knowlton narrated, moderated by Dr. Dana Lin.
What was meant to be a pilot with only general surgery categorical soon grew to include faculty, staff, and trainees from across the department as well as Interventional Radiology.
Nassar, Knowlton and Lin, created the PPE Virtual Education Taskforce (PVET) for Health Care Professionals (HCPs).
"The goal of this task force is to have zero hospital-acquired COVID-19 infections among HCPs," said Nassar.
Other members of PVET include Peter Kolonoski, RN MSN (infection control); Karlene Mills, MSN RN (Patient Care Manager); Tereasa Roman-Micek, BS CHSOS (Goodman simulation expert); and Amy Chang, MD (infectious disease attending).
The team is organizing two educational sessions in the upcoming weeks for surgical residents and faculty related to COVID preparedness and principles of patient management with experts from Infectious Disease and Internal Medicine.