RecruitingACTRN12620000808943

A Patient Perspective Survey on Masking or De-Masking the Medical Staff amid COVID-19 Pandemic

Sponsor

Maroondah Hospital

Enrollment

600 participants

Start Date

Mar 23, 2020

Study Type

Observational

Conditions

Cross Infection COVID-19

Summary

With the emergence of the novel COVID-19 virus, medical staff are continuing to expose and put themselves at risk in their day to day work. This virus is known to spread through primarily droplet exposure. Frontline medical staff are at highest risk in being exposed to droplets from the potential asymptomatic or mild COVID-19 individuals. A simple, but effective, means to reduce droplet spread is the use of face masks. However, wearing face masks outside operating theatres is not routine practice in Australian Hospitals, as such, there is concern that it could cause fear and anxiety in already stressed patients. Such concern has caused a dilemma among some medical staff with regards to masking or de-masking while at work. In order to find out whether this concern is real, i.e., how patients feel about the change in practice by medical staff wearing face masks, we designed this written questionnaire survey to examine patients’ attitudes towards masking the medical staff at work during COVID-19 pandemic.

Eligibility

Sex: Both males and femalesMin Age: 16 Yearss

Plain Language Summary

Simplified for easier understanding

During the COVID-19 pandemic, medical staff across Australia began wearing face masks at work to reduce the spread of droplets that carry the virus. While this is an important infection control measure, there was concern that patients might find it unsettling or anxiety-provoking to see their doctors and nurses masked outside of operating theatres, where masks are not normally worn. This study is a simple patient survey — not a treatment trial — aimed at understanding how hospital patients feel about medical staff wearing face masks. The questionnaire explores whether patients are comfortable, reassured, or anxious when their healthcare team is masked during the pandemic. There are no medications, procedures, or interventions involved — just a written questionnaire. You may be eligible if you are a patient (aged 16 or over) admitted to Maroondah or Box Hill Hospital (Eastern Health) for any surgical or medical reason, and you do not have a suspected or confirmed COVID-19 infection. People with intellectual disability, dementia, significant language barriers, or hearing or visual impairments that would prevent them completing the survey are not eligible.

This is a simplified summary. Always discuss eligibility with your doctor before enrolling in a clinical trial.

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Interventions

This is a study-specific survey focusing on determining the patient's perceptions of mask-wearing by medical staff and the relationship with the daily consumption of COVID19 information. It takes approximately 1-2 minutes to complete the anonymous written questionnaire survey. Patients need to complete the survey only once when they are admitted to the hospital, there is no follow up survey for that particular patient. However, if they are readmitted to our hospital during the study period (March to August 2020), they are potentially surveyed again, but this is not patient-specific but time-specific, i.e., admissions during the study period