Guidelines for Frontline Health Care Staff Safety for COVID-19

• Main Authors: Terrance L. Baker, Jack V. Greiner, Elizabeth Maxwell-Schmidt, P. Henri Lamothe, Modesta Vesonder
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: SAGE Publishing 2020-07-01
• Series: Journal of Primary Care & Community Health
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1177/2150132720938046

This document establishes safety guidelines for physicians, nurses, and allied health care and facility staff who may be exposed to patients infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in a health care facility. SARS-CoV-2 infection is highly contagious and places health care workers at risk for infection resulting in coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Physicians, nurses, and allied health care and facility staff in all frontline environments must be provided and utilize necessary personal protective equipment (PPE). It is important that health care staff adopt a universal set of guidelines in which to conduct themselves in order to minimize infection with the SARS-CoV-2 contagion. The establishment of these guidelines is necessary in this viral pandemic since such directives can create a standard of safety that is universally accepted. These guidelines establish a framework to provide consistency among health care facilities and staff from the time the staff member arrives at the health care facility until they return home. These guidelines provide a practical description of the minimum necessary protection for physicians, nurses, and allied health care and facility staff against SARS-CoV-2 infection.