Coping with personal protective equipment: Top tips from actors used to working in restrictive clothing and equipment

Summary

University College London (UCL) Hospitals have produced this joint guide with Performing Medicine for using personal protective equipment (PPE) informed by insights from actors used to wearing restrictive costumes.

Although healthcare workers wearing PPE have an entirely different purpose and are working in an intensely emotional and demanding context, actors have useful, practical advice to share about challenges such as orientation, communication and movement in challenging clothing and equipment.

Performing Medicine has been providing courses for healthcare professionals for over 15 years. They draw on arts-based approaches and methods to teach skills relevant to clinical practice.