Personal Protective Equipment
The American Association of Nurse Practitioners® (AANP) recognizes the importance of proper personal protective equipment (PPE). Evidence is irrefutable that adequate access to proper PPE is essential to protecting patients and health care providers (HCPs) from contracting and spreading communicable illnesses, including COVID-19.
Nurse practitioners (NPs) and other HCPs providing care during the COVID-19 emergency risk being exposed to the coronavirus due to a lack of adequate PPE. As a result, HCPs have contracted COVID-19 and become ill, and they are unable to continue to provide care during this time of increased need for HCPs. This results in unnecessary challenges for individual clinicians and the entire health care system.
NPs are educated in infection control measures, including PPE, and they must be equipped with the proper PPE so they can safely provide care. AANP strongly supports the use of PPE by NPs and trusts the discretion of individual NPs to use their professional clinical judgement in assessing PPE needs.