St. Joe’s nurse develops a homegrown solution to optimize PPE supplies
What began as a simple pattern made from pumpkin-print fabric has developed in to a homegrown solution to optimize PPE supplies at the hospital, while reducing the risk of COVID-19 transmission.
Linda Schouwstra, RN, Surgical Clinical Reviewer, designed and fabricated protective hoods for her colleagues to wear during high-risk aerosol generating procedures.
A quilter in her spare time, Linda was prompted to make the protective hoods in early April, when shipment of PPE the hospital normally uses was delayed owing to the pandemic.
“When we were running low on the product, I was asked, ‘do you think you can make something?’ I got up in the middle of the night – I couldn’t sleep – and made a template from some pumpkin fabric I had in my sewing room,” Linda says. “It spiralled from there.”
Originally, Linda enlisted the sewing skills of her family to make the first 300 hoods. She now has a small army of St. Joe’s volunteers who are sewing thousands of hoods in their homes, before they are sterilized in hospital. Linda has also shared the pattern with hospitals in the community.
Clyde Meldrum, a patient turned volunteer, is among the sewers. Normally, Clyde volunteers in the hospital’s outpatient pulmonary rehabilitation program. To help out during the pandemic, however, Clyde – a former college professor – taught himself to sew.
“I lay out the hoods from the rough material, my wife cuts them, and I sew them,” Clyde says. “It’s something we can do to help the hospital, the staff, and patients – we’re thrilled to be involved.”
The hoods are made from surgical drape material used to wrap medical instruments. Once sewn, they are put through a sterilization process in the hospital’s Medical Device Reprocessing department to mesh the fibres and make the hoods impervious.
“The hoods have been designed to provide excellent protection for head and neck and are, as an added bonus, very affordable,” says Dr. Janet Farrell, chief of anesthesia at St. Joe’s. “These hoods are impermeable to water, are easy to don and doff, and even come in two sizes.
“The hoods are now a standard part of our code blue protected anesthesiology equipment. With adversity comes invention!”