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|Articles|May 29, 2015

NIOSH Offers Resources on Respiratory Protection in Healthcare

NIOSH and the National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory (NPPTL) announce the release of three documents related to respiratory protection in healthcare.

NIOSH and the National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory (NPPTL) announce the release of three documents related to respiratory protection in healthcare. 

Hospital Respiratory Protection Toolkit
NIOSH and OSHA resource for employers to use to protect hospital staff.
This toolkit was developed to assist hospitals in developing and implementing effective respiratory protection programs, with an emphasis on preventing the transmission of aerosol transmissible diseases to healthcare personnel. NIOSH Publication 2015-117
https://www.osha.gov/Publications/OSHA3767.pdf

Respiratory Protection Education AAOHN Education & Resources Webkit
Free Online Learning
The Respiratory Protection Webkit includes a 10-module Respiratory Protection Course and accompanying resources. The course is ideal for the occupational and environmental health professional who wants to learn more about OSHA's Respiratory Protection Standard and the role of the occupational health nurse (OHN) as the respiratory protection program administrator. The training includes numerous resources for the OHN which are provided here in the Webkit.The course is free and runs approximately 90 minutes. It includes numerous online links to external respiratory protection resources. It is self-paced and you can do it anywhere, anytime. If you need to log out while using the course, you may login and return. Upon completion of the training and the accompanying evaluation tool, you will be awarded 1.5 CNE.  The survey, education and resources are brought to all OHNs at no cost thanks to a NIOSH Grant #0000HCCL-2012-48066
http://aaohnacademy.org/rpp/rpp-program.php

Implementing Hospital Respiratory Protection Programs: Strategies from the Field
Protecting workers from exposure to all types of respiratory hazards is an important issue for hospitals and other healthcare organizations. In order to address this often overlooked danger, The Joint Commission and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention  (CDC), National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), and National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory (NPPTL) collaborated to develop a new educational monograph designed to assist hospitals in implementing their respiratory protection programs. The monograph features examples, strategies, new resources, and a variety of implementation approaches which were solicited from the field and vetted through an eight-member Technical Expert Panel. The monograph is part of a cluster of research activities spearheaded by NPPTL/NIOSH around respiratory protection programs and is intended to be a companion document to the other CDC/NIOSH/NPPTL respiratory protection publications and resources.
This monograph was developed by The Joint Commission under a project supported in part by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), under contract no. 254-2011-M-41082.
http://www.jointcommission.org/topics/monographs_and_white_papers.aspx

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