PPE portrait project
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|---|---|
| operator | Mary Beth Heffernan |
| user | Cati Brown-Johnson |
| Registration | 2014 |
| http://www.ppeportrait.org | |
The PPE portrait project was started by Mary Beth Heffernan during the Ebola outbreak from 2014 in Liberia in order to make medical personnel in personal protective equipment (PPE) appear more humane. Patients often do not have the opportunity to develop a personal relationship with their caregivers because they wear scary protective clothing. The PPE Portrait Project therefore promotes a personal photo on the PSA to simplify such a personal relationship. The project was revived in 2020 as part of the COVID-19 pandemic by social scientist Cati Brown-Johnson and featured in the media by The Rachel Maddow Show , National Public Radio, Smithsonian Magazine and KQED .
history
American artist and professor of art and art history at Occidental College Mary Beth Heffernan saw the full protective suits that medical staff in Liberia wore against Ebola and created the PPE Portrait Project. Heffernan called it "an art intervention to improve Ebola care". The grant-funded project focused on isolated patients. It achieved "drilling through that isolation " by allowing patients to better connect with their carers. The Liberian doctors J. Soka Moses and Moses Massaquoi invited Heffernan to visit the Ebola doctors and staff. Massaquoi said he received emails from people who "suggested some untested scheme ... it was getting pretty painful". But the suggestion to stick photos on the suits made so much sense that Heffernan replied immediately. Heffernan told Maddow staff that she had hoped the portraits would become standard medical practice for all types of patients who have been isolated for days and can only see faces masked with PPE.
The Gold Foundation funded Heffernan a trip to Liberia. Heffernan had received $ 5,000 to use on this project. Health workers there reported that they felt more human. She spent three weeks training the staff and leaving material for them to use.
In the five years since the Ebola outbreak, Heffernan reached out to many hospitals but found that they were not interested in the project. Medical staff who wore full PPE during the COVID-19 pandemic have changed this mindset in many hospitals.
The PPE Portrait Project
"So that your frightened patients, who actually can't see anything of your face, at least have an idea of who you are and what you really look like."
Cati Brown-Johnson of Stanford University School of Medicine revived the project during the COVID-19 pandemic. She says she is a social scientist who is interested in human relationships. Brown-Johnson says the research behind the idea shows that "warm and competent health care professionals make a connection with the healing mechanisms in a person's body. And the PSA obviously represents competence. The only warmth one could get, however, would be one Portrait". Brown-Johnson said she saw an improvement in health care workers morale as it made them feel more human. Brown-Johnson tried the revitalized program first at a drive-thru proving ground in Stanford.
During one of the experimental tests for the project, staff said they immediately noticed better interactions with patients. A nurse, Anna Chico, who worked at the drive-thru testing site for COVID-19, said she introduced herself by pointing at her portrait and saying, "This is me among all of this". Doctors reported that it felt like they were working with people on a team, "rather than with inanimate objects."
The Rachel Maddow Show found out about this project when they noticed that doctor Ernest Patti from St. Barnabas, whom they interviewed several times on the show about his experience working with COVID-19 patients, was in full PPE but with a smiling photo of himself appeared on the outside of his PPE. Maddow staff checked with Patti and learned that a woman had seen him on previous Maddow shows and sent him a set of stickers of his own face to be used on his PPE. The woman was the artist Dr. Lori Justice Shocket, who holds a medical degree. She is also married to a doctor from the emergency room and has a child and stepchild who are also emergency room doctors. Shocket asks people to email her photos of their faces; she prints out stickers and sends them back by post.
According to Heffernan, the goal of the project is to give hospitals the tools and training to carry out the project on their own. She hopes all medical staff will use PPE portraits, whether in full PPE or not. In situations where medical personnel are wearing a mask, it would be beneficial for the patient to see a smiling photo. Maddow went on to say of the PPE Portrait Project that seeing a photo of their caregiver helps create a real connection rather than "someone else's connection, even if they are doing their best to save lives". The Smithsonian Magazine says that full the full PSA anonymize the carrier as a masked, expressionless staff spacesuits. In Liberia, Heffernan said medical staff are "perceived as 'terrifying ninjas' - isolated, dehumanized and patient anxiety increased".
Other hospitals starting to use PSA portraits in April 2020 include the University of Massachusetts Medical School, USC's Keck School of Medicine, and Boston Children's Hospital.
“Attaching photos to PPE is such a simple, low-tech tool - yet it can transform those precious moments of care at a time when patients are sick, scared, and alone. We were so happy to be able to support Mary Beth Heffernan and her brilliant idea with her first work on the PPE portrait project. We urge all hospitals to adopt this practice so that both patients and healthcare teams can benefit. "
Practical implementation
The Stanford Medicine website advises that in high risk situations, the photo should be disposed of with the disposal of the gown. In lower risk environments where the gown will be reused, the photo sticker must be disinfected prior to using the gown, much like a name tag. Stanford suggests that when you take a portrait of yourself, use the portrait setting on your smartphone, look straight into the camera lens and "offer the smile you want your patients to see". Heffernan recommends the use of stickers with a matt surface of about DIN A4 size that cannot be reused. Laminating, disinfecting and reusing was discussed first, but there were concerns that the hard edge of the plastic could damage the PPE and become a source of contamination. Medical staff can keep a supply of photo labels in the dressing area. It is suggested that the photo be worn at "heart level" "because your care comes from your heart".
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Jim Tranquada: Photo Project Builds Connections Between Patients, Doctors in Pandemic . Occidental College. Archived from the original on June 1, 2020. Retrieved June 1, 2020.
- ↑ a b Lakshmi Sarah: From Ebola to Coronavirus - A Simple Practice of Sticker-Photo Portraits for Health Care Workers . KQED. Archived from the original on June 1, 2020. Retrieved June 1, 2020.
- ↑ a b Nurity Aizenman: An Artist's Brainstorm: Put Photos On Those Faceless Ebola Suits . Archived from the original on June 1, 2020. Retrieved June 1, 2020.
- ↑ a b c d e Rachel Maddow : PPE Portraits . MSNBC. May 8, 2020. Accessed June 1, 2020.
- ↑ a b c d e Reactivated PPE Portrait Project strengthens human connections in the COVID-19 crisis . Gold Foundation. Archived from the original on June 1, 2020. Retrieved June 1, 2020.
- ↑ a b c Katherine J. Wu: Portrait Project Reveals the Faces Behind Health Care Workers' Protective Gear . Smithsonian Magazine. Archived from the original on June 1, 2020. Retrieved June 1, 2020.
- ↑ a b Elisa Wouk Almino: A Photo Project Helps Mitigate Patient Loneliness During COVID-19 Pandemic . Archived from the original on June 1, 2020. Retrieved June 1, 2020.
- ^ PPE Portrait Project . Stanford Medicine. Archived from the original on June 1, 2020. Retrieved June 1, 2020.