SURGICAL MASKS

Surgical Masks

Surgical Masks

Introduction

Providing healthcare services in an effective and efficient way should be the first and foremost responsibility of the healthcare practitioners. In a healthcare setting, a patient receives different sorts of and different levels of care and treatment. Some treatments involve routine checkups and minor treatment. On the other hand, there are some treatments that require major surgical operations. While providing any of these treatments healthcare practitioners should keep in mind that they are obliged to provide these treatments in an appropriate and sensible way. At the same time, they are also obliged to protect themselves and patients from viruses and infectious diseases. The possibility of catching infections from patients or causing patients to get infected becomes higher in performing the operation or surgery. In order to avoid the influence of infections, healthcare practitioners use personal protective equipments. Healthcare practitioners wear these personal protective equipments to protect themselves. These personal protective equipments also help healthcare practitioners and surgeons to avoid the possibility of becoming a vector. On the basis, of the exposure healthcare practitioners select various personal protective equipments to be used while handling a patient. These personal protective equipments include gloves, masks, caps and coats. This paper talks about one such personal protective equipment. The personal protective equipment that is discussed in this paper is surgical masks. Surgeons and healthcare practitioners wear surgical masks to avoid infections. This paper discusses variegated aspects of surgical mask.

Surgical Masks

A surgical mask is a mask worn by healthcare professionals during a surgical procedure to prevent germs in their airways to go out and contaminate the sterile operating field. These masks are used for the care of both patients and surgeons. Surgical masks are simpler and less expensive than other types of masks. They are also used by the population, especially in major cities in East Asia and Southeast, to limit the inhalation of air pollutants, or the risk of contamination by viruses such as the flu common. They have been widely used in China, Hong Kong, Vietnam, and Toronto during the epidemics of SARS in 2002-2003, or Mexico during the outbreak of influenza A (H1N1) in 2009 (White, 1993).

There are different types of surgical face masks. Some of the surgical face masks are designed to use by the people to get protection from any outbreak of diseases and viruses, and some are designed to be used by the healthcare professionals. All the surgical masks are different in terms of the degree of protection that these masks provide and in terms of the manufacturing material that is used in the manufacturing process of the surgical masks. That is why the surgical face mask these masks cannot be used interchangeably. Surgical mask cover part of the nose and mouth in the face of the user and provides protection against infections and viruses. The usage of surgical face masks gives protection to patients and surgeons from droplets or splashes. However, the protection that these surgical masks provide against infections is suspected in case of ...