Speech intelligibility in respiratory protective equipment - Implications for verbal communication in critical care.

ABSTRACT: Respiratory protective equipment (RPE) such as filtering facepiece respirators, elastomeric respirators and powered air-purifying respirators are routinely worn in the critical care unit as a component of personal protective equipment (PPE) when caring for patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). It is the authors' anecdotal experience that RPE may, however, inadvertently interfere with verbal communication between critical care staff. The literature pertaining to the effects of RPE wear on verbal communication was therefore reviewed. A literature search returned 98 articles, and 4 records were identified from other sources; after screening for content relevancy, 15 experimental studies were included in the narrative synthesis. Previous studies in both healthcare and other occupa

SUBMITTER: Round M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7428718 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature