Influence of different protection levels of PPE on nurses’ physical fatigue during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The continuous spread of COVID-19 globally has led to busier medical practices and nurses are having to provide medical services to patients while suffering from high levels of fatigue. OBJECTIVE: This study experimentally investigated the influence of different levels of personal protection equipment (PPE) on nurses’ physical fatigue. METHODS: We collected data from 12 participants by simulating a series of nursing tasks. The participants wore one of three different protection levels of PPE, and data recording their heart rate (HR), oral temperature, task completion time, and subjective fatigue were collected. Following this, relationship models between subjective fatigue and objective fatigue indices was established using multiple linear regression analysis. RESULTS: By analyzing the variation trends of single indices of HR, oral temperature, task completion time, and subjective fatigue, it was found that the higher the level of protection levels of PPE worn by the participants, the higher the degree of fatigue experienced by them. In addition, taking subjective fatigue variation as the dependent variable and objective fatigue indices as independent variables, relationship models of the three different protection levels of PPE were established. CONCLUSIONS: The results confirmed the influence of different protection levels of PPE on nurses’ physical fatigue levels. They also provide a basis for medical administrators to monitor the degree of fatigue experienced by nurses, attempt to arrange nurses’ work content accordingly, and schedule suitably to combat and manage recorded increases in fatigue.