By Autumn Sypus

The Canadian Coalition for Green Health Care (the Coalition) encourages Canadian health care workers who use personal protective equipment (PPE) to take part in a short survey as part of the Coalition’s new initiative, Reducing Health Care-Related PPE and Medical Single Use Plastic Waste Through Circular Economy Principles.

The project, made possible with funding support from Environment and Climate Change Canada, will demonstrate how hospital-generated PPE and medical single-use plastics can be successfully managed by applying the principles of a circular economy: reduce, reuse and recycle as much as possible before the materials are disposed of.

The confidential five-minute online survey seeks to gather health care workers’ experiences using reusable PPE in clinical settings.

Specifically, participants will be asked for their opinion on comfort, safety and satisfaction with reusable PPE, in particular: reusable gowns, reusable elastomeric respirator, googles, and face shields.

If you are a health care worker who has used one or more of these PPE, you are encouraged to share your experiences, both positive or negative, at the survey link: https://conta.cc/3GZVycV

For those engaged in social media, you are invited to share a short testimonial, photo or video of you and/or your team wearing reusable PPE. Please use hashtag #reusablePPEproject

Your post may be selected to appear in the Coalition’s upcoming video or on its social media channels.

To share via email, or to learn more, email autumn@greenhealthcare.ca

The project outline can be viewed at: https://greenhealthcare.ca/ppe-msup/

For reusable PPE to be adopted into the health system, users must be and feel safe and comfortable. Reusable PPE is generally more environmentally sustainable and less susceptible to supply chain interruptions than single-use PPE.

The Canadian Coalition for Green Health Care is a national not-for profit coalition of health care organizations and professionals, a green health care resource network and a national catalyst for environmental stewardship. Our vision is a Canadian health system that is environmentally sustainable, climate-resilient and net zero.  www.greenhealthcare.ca

Autumn Sypus works in communications at the Canadian Coalition for Green Health Care autumn@greenhealthcare.ca.