Personal protective equipment (PPE) is specialized clothing or equipment, worn by an employee for protection against infectious materials or any potential infectious disease exposure. PPE is designed according to the type of work, and one of the examples is PPE for medical personnel aims to reduce the risk of contracting an infectious disease.
With the current Corona Virus or Covid-19 pandemic outbreak, medical personnel such as doctors and nurses are required to wear PPE. Moreover, some referral hospitals for COVID-19 in Surabaya have reported a lack of protective gear for medical personnel who handle patients suspected of having been infected with the virus. One of them is Regional General Hospital (RSUD) Dr Soetomo Surabaya.
Erlangga Lazuardi Ramadhan, as Head of Student Executive Board (KaBEM) Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Airlangga (FK UNAIR) was briefly contacted by one of the doctors from RSUD Dr. Soetomo who stated that the hospital reported a lack of protective equipment. Starting from that, FK UNAIR students made face shield in FK UNAIR’s courtroom for two days from Monday to Tuesday on March 23-24.
Angga explained that making PPE requires several materials that need to be prepared, such as mica plastic, foam or sponge, rubber strap, glue, and sewing thread. The construction begins with measured mica plastic, then marked with markers, and formed into two parts with blunt edges. After that, both sides of the mica plastic are perforated and put the rubber strap inside.
“Stick the sponge with a glue gun on both sides of mica plastic. The sponge is a cushion for the face shield and then insert a rubber strap in both sides of the mica plastic and sew it after, ” he explained.
The protective gear will be intended for medical personnel at Dr. Soetomo Hospital. In its making, several representatives of the faculty and student executive board invited volunteers from each generation.
“There are about 20 students who participated in this activity, with the processing time of 5-6 hours for two days to produce 200 PPE,” said Angga.
Although they made it in a short time, the face shield is made according to the World Health Organization (WHO) standards. He hopes that it can help ease the burden on health workers in hospitals.
“Hopefully, this information can also be applied for people who want to provide face shield for the medical team,” he concluded. (*)