Abstract
The paper reports on an AHRC-funded project aimed at mitigating the personal and environmental impact of PPE isolation gowns, as worn by healthcare workers treating patients with COVID-19. The enquiry was devised in collaboration with NHS and industry partners and is informed by empirical investigations into procured gowns and the lived experiences the health professionals’ wearing them. The development of an industry standard ‘reusable gown system’ requires negotiating various proximities: between safety and disease trans-mission; sustainability and medical waste; the needs of end users, regulation and cost; public and private stakeholders. The article contextualises the research problem and methodology, incorporating survey, co-design and material methods employed to gain a better understanding of the issues associated with cur-rent gown design, fabrication and use. The study raises questions around how critical clothing items are produced, procured and disposed of, and the need for circular design and supply chain models.
Keywords
reusable ppe, healthcare workers, lived experience, circular design
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2022.732
Citation
Townsend, K., Sterman, S., Salter, E., and Harrigan, K. (2022) Out of isolation: Designing reusable PPE gowns based on an understanding of healthcare workers’ lived experiences, in Lockton, D., Lenzi, S., Hekkert, P., Oak, A., Sádaba, J., Lloyd, P. (eds.), DRS2022: Bilbao, 25 June - 3 July, Bilbao, Spain. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2022.732
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Conference Track
Research Paper
Included in
Out of isolation: Designing reusable PPE gowns based on an understanding of healthcare workers’ lived experiences
The paper reports on an AHRC-funded project aimed at mitigating the personal and environmental impact of PPE isolation gowns, as worn by healthcare workers treating patients with COVID-19. The enquiry was devised in collaboration with NHS and industry partners and is informed by empirical investigations into procured gowns and the lived experiences the health professionals’ wearing them. The development of an industry standard ‘reusable gown system’ requires negotiating various proximities: between safety and disease trans-mission; sustainability and medical waste; the needs of end users, regulation and cost; public and private stakeholders. The article contextualises the research problem and methodology, incorporating survey, co-design and material methods employed to gain a better understanding of the issues associated with cur-rent gown design, fabrication and use. The study raises questions around how critical clothing items are produced, procured and disposed of, and the need for circular design and supply chain models.