Heartbeat: Trust nurses fit for face mask testing

April 12, 2019

When you are around patients who are suffering from contagious infections, you are putting your faith in personal protective equipment. It is reassuring to know that our Trust has the only two female nurses in the country who are qualified to fit test face masks, using a certain method and machine.

Kasmiro Aheer and Diane Thomlinson have recently completed their accredited training in the quantitative method of face mask testing using the Portacount machine. They have found that they’re very much in the minority of qualified testers using this method of testing.

Heartbeat caught up with the infection prevention and control nurses who are currently forging their way through the Trust with their brand new testing system as they rolled their fit testing training out to another cohort of colleagues.

Kasmiro Aheer said, “We’re really privileged to be qualified and accredited. Fit testing is incredibly important for protecting yourself from airborne and communicable infections. With our Portacount testing kit and our army of fit testers, we’re working hard to ensure that every one of our clinical colleagues who might need to wear a face mask has the opportunity to be fitted and tested. This is the only way we can be certain that when they need to rely on the mask’s protection, it will do its job.”

To date the nurses have managed to train over 73 staff to be fit testers and over 952 colleagues have undergone the testing process. Numerous student nurses have also been fit tested by the nurse education team.

If you have any queries about face mask fit testing, contact the infection prevention and control team on ext. 5900.