Australian Guidelines and FaceShield™

The Guidelines’ recommendations and the role of FaceShield™ in your duty of care

The Guidelines make recommendations on ‘implementing work practices that reduce the risk of transmission of infectious agents’¹. Particularly the use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for the three modes of transmission of infectious agents - contact, droplet and airborne.

According to The Guidelines, the benefit of using PPE ‘clearly outweigh any undesirable effect’¹. They are based on both ‘supportive evidence and a strong theoretical rational to support this intervention’¹  and can therefore be considered an absolute necessity for proper hygiene practice.

PPE refers to “a variety of barriers, used alone or in combination, to protect mucous membranes, airway, skin and clothing from contact with infectious agents’¹.

Purifas® FaceShield™ (a medical device listed on the ARTG: 313130) is the only form of PPE that fully covers the face hole and is proven to provide bacterial filtration. It is an essential device for reducing the transmission and contact of infectious diseases within the healthcare, clinical and therapy setting and providing a safe environment for both workers and patients.

These properties not only help decrease the transmission of the bacteria from the patient to the bed, but also provide a barrier that reduces the potential exposure of bacteria from the bed to the next customer.

The 2 ply polypropylene composition of the FaceShield™ creates a hydrophobic barrier (that is, it repels water and water-like fluids) ensuring that infectious microbes travelling through an agent such as saliva will not penetrate the barrier. This will result in a reduction of transmitted bacteria through the droplet mode and will in turn reduce the exposure of bacteria to next customer.

The patent-pending internal skirt – the key feature of the FaceShield™- is the only element of its kind to cover the entire inside of the face hole and whole facial surface of the therapy bed, providing complete coverage and maximum protection for high quality therapy.

Its main purpose is to reduce the exposure of infectious agents to a customer’s mucosal surfaces (eyes, nose or mouth) which are the most common points of entry for an infectious agent. Many of the current paper products do not have any bacterial filtration properties and only cover the top surface of the therapy bed, leaving the patient widely exposed to the infection risk of the face hole. 

At present, there is less diligence when it comes to therapy bed hygiene – both in healthcare facilities and in other therapy services due to the high patient turnover and perceived cleanliness of the current paper sheets. Purifas® FaceShield™ provides easy hygiene compliance by staff and a reduction in the transmission of and exposure to infectious agents.

Infection prevention and control ‘should not be considered as an additional set of practices but as part of standard care’¹.

References:

Australian Guidelines for the Prevention and Control of Infection in Healthcare (May 2019); Accessed 1 October 2019 from https://nhmrc.govcms.gov.au/about-us/publications/australian-guidelines-prevention-and-control-infection-healthcare-2019#block-views-block-file-attachments-content-block-1