The CDC, among others, have suggested that perhaps more training is needed to ensure that direct health care workers are properly using protective equipment.   According to that line of thought, poor Nina Pham simply did not know what she was doing when she picked up a touch of Ebola from her patient.  If only she had more education on how to put on gloves and a gown, this whole disaster could have been avoided.

I think not.

I posted my dismay regarding re-educating nurses on FaceBook and was amazed at how smart my friends are.

One non-nurse, Michelle said that education was a way to protect the facility.  In other words, when a policy is violated, the hospital is able to assure any surveyor or lawyer that they did, indeed, provide the education and training and have therefore met their responsibility.  Sadly, a successful healthcare facility (and by successful, I mean isn’t closed down) must cover all bases to minimize damages.  I would probably waste time and resources re-teaching PPE, too if I had to make the decisions.

She also pointed out that maybe protocols are not strictly enforced when the risks are lower which could lead to bad habits.  I agree.  Ever notice how MRSA is already a problem when we start monitoring hand hygiene?  (I love that.  Hand hygiene – soon there will be an aisle in the supermarket for hand hygiene products instead of soap, antibacterial gel and hand lotion.)

Lisa Selman Holman pointed out how very miserable PPE is to wear.  She is right.  It is hot and sticky, nothing fits right and it is ugly in the most unforgiving way.  I have yet to figure out how looking like Big Bird assists in the infection control process. Healthcare workers, especially those with a fashion sense, can’t wait to take it off.

If ever there was a time to spend money, this would be it.  Athletic clothing manufacturers have done amazing things with sports gear.  It seems like a clothing manufacturer who exists because they make comfortable, functional clothes that can wick away perspiration, kill enough germs to smell good and keep a body warm in water might be able to help design something comfortable, disease proof, easily taken on and off  with the assistance of an infection control specialist.

Sara Kawaguchi came up with the idea of having two people involved – one present simply to observe.  I love this idea and it is cheap to do when considering the stakes.  Having never met Miss Pham, I can only assume that she didn’t tear a glove, look at it and say, ‘Oh darn,’ and carry on with restarting an infiltrated IV line.   If she breached protocol, it was likely unnoticed by her.

My cousin, Steve, is a physician and his response was simple.

1) we are human
2) we make mistakes
3 there is no room for a mistake here, in flight or in surgery

There’s a lot of truth in that but we can minimize mistakes.  Even the world famous Quality Assurance plan designed by Toyota, Six Sigma refers to only six errors in a million.  When it comes to Ebola, nobody wants to be one of the six.

The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande is written by a surgeon who almost killed a patient because he forgot to do something very simple and standard prior to surgery – type and match blood.  After this near catastrophe that left his confidence shaken, he set about researching how to prevent errors.  It turned out that aviation history was marred by the crash of the first B17 in which several people died.  It almost took Boeing aircraft out of the game completely.  The solution included a checklist which enabled the (highly skilled and trained pilots) to fly 12 planes a total of 1.8M miles without incident.  It is now used universally.

Checklists are not designed to educate anyone.  If you have ever turned in visit notes only to find out that you forgot to write a narrative because you were interrupted, you are prone to human error.  If you have ever been called about a bill you know you paid only to find the stamped envelope in your purse, you could have used a checklist.  They are designed to let you pick up where you left off in the event something slips your mind, you are preoccupied or there is chaos all around you.  They ground and center the user.

There are undoubtedly numerous approaches to improving the safety of healthcare workers but re-educating the staff in a critical care unit on how to put on and take off PPE is an intervention for the hospital – not the nurses.  Don’t tell me that the staff in an intensive care unit requires more schoolin’ to put on gowns, masks and gloves.  Make them more comfortable so they aren’t urgently ripped off like they were on fire the minute you clear the room.  Have someone else watch.  Use a check list.  Doing more of what was done in the past because it didn’t work doesn’t quite make sense to me.

What the healthcare staff needs the most is a cure for Ebola.  When it comes to caring for a patient with Ebola, especially at the end of life, perhaps the most important changes will come about from the staff who were actually there doing the job.  If the blame game stops and the focus is directed to increased protection of healthcare workers, why not consult that handful of clinicians who are the only ones in the United States to have cared for Ebola patients in US hospitals?

I know that you join The Coders in wishing Godspeed to Nina Pham’s recovery.  She was able to be there for a patient isolated from his family and friends when he needed them the most.  People like Nina Pham do not put their own lives on the line for a paycheck.  She has a calling and I pray she will be back at work sooner than later.

Also,  let’s not forget that Nina Pham is not alone.  A few dozen other healthcare workers who took the same risk as Nina Pham and so far, have been free of symptoms.  These include the staff in Dallas as well as Nebraska and GA where two other Ebola patients have been treated.  They are no less heroic because they have not contracted Ebola; they just haven’t made the news and I hope they don’t any time soon.