Modification of respirator donning skill: Adopting the emerging technology of real time leakage monitoring in nursing education

Cathy Nga-yan Lee, Simon Ching Lam and Andrew Kwok-fai Lui
The Open University of Hong Kong
Hong Kong SAR, China

Billy On-ying Pang
Tung Wah College
Hong Kong SAR, China

Training in psychomotor skill is essential for nursing education. The proper donning of a N95 respirator is a necessary aspect of the nursing curriculum as leakage may be life-threatening. Since leakage may not be easily detected by the human eye, the traditional mode of education which relies on demonstration and return demonstration has its shortcomings. In training, the adoption of an emerging technology of real-time leakage monitoring (RTLM) should be able to fill such a gap because RTLM makes invisible leakage into a visible ‘fit factor.’

Through a quasi-experimental design, a single group of 111 nursing students who failed in standard fit testing (i.e. pre-test) was recruited to attend a 15-minute RTLM-assisted training session. The post-test of fit testing obtained a 100% pass rate. These findings indicate that RTLM-assisted training was effective in regulating the donning skill of some students who failed previously, albeit that the traditional mode of education was still applicable for most nursing students.