{"id":764,"date":"2020-06-22T00:54:17","date_gmt":"2020-06-22T00:54:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ppeportrait.org\/create\/?page_id=764"},"modified":"2020-06-23T04:28:16","modified_gmt":"2020-06-23T04:28:16","slug":"why-ppe-portraits","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.ppeportrait.org\/create\/why-ppe-portraits\/","title":{"rendered":"Why PPE Portraits?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mary Beth Heffernan
\nPPE Portrait Project<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe patients arrive, at first fearful of the people in spacesuits whose faces they cannot see.\u201d Daniel Berehulak. NY Times, October 31, 2014<\/p>\n

The PPE Portrait Project is an art intervention designed to improve Ebola care. Inspired by Joseph Beuys\u2019 notion of \u201csocial sculpture,\u201d I seek to ameliorate the alienating appearance of the Ebola \u201chazmat\u201d suits with headshot portraits of the health care workers inside. It\u2019s important to me that the portrait labels have tangible medical and psychosocial benefits.<\/p>\n

The headshot portrait labels are designed to reduce suffering and improve health outcomes in EVD care. The \u201cotherworldly\u201d appearance of the personal protective equipment (PPE) contributes to patients\u2019 isolation and fear of Ebola virus disease (EVD), while its frightening effects diminishes clinicians\u2019 ability to establish trust and emotionally connect with patients. A headshot printed on disposable adhesive labels and affixed to the upper chest area of the outer protective gear enables a patient to see (a photographic image of) their healthcare worker\u2019s face. The practice also helps improve receptivity towards ambulance technicians and burial teams entering sensitive communities.<\/p>\n

Where were the PPE Portraits in use?<\/u><\/p>\n

PPE Portraits were used in Liberia at the ELWA II Ebola Treatment Unit in Monrovia and the IOM Tubmanburg ETU in Bomi County. IOM Tubmanburg ETU effectively beta tested the project, with patients reporting, \u201cI like that I can see who is taking care of me.\u201d Another patient said \u201cIt is nice I can see what you look like behind that [PPE].\u201d One of our nurse assistants said she thought the pictures were a \u201cthe best idea\u201d because the patients, when they are discharged, have no idea who took care of them and \u201cthis way they know who helped them.\u201d All the staff agreed that the PPE looked much less scary with a grinning picture on the front and have noted that, when in the Red Zone, the staff also look at the pictures. One doctor said that \u201cthe PPE makes everything so impersonal, it is nice to look around and be like, \u2018Oh that is Bomia, or oh that is Gorpu.\u2019 It makes it feel more like I am working with people, with my team, instead of inanimate objects.\u201d<\/p>\n

Isolation, distress, and the positive effects of social exchange<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

Source isolation can be an extremely distressing and frightening experience1 even for periods as short as 24 hours[1]<\/a>. The fear experienced by EVD patients is likely multifold: fear of the deadly disease itself,[2]<\/a>\u00a0and the frightening appearance of PPE.[3]<\/a>\u00a0Social isolation and psychological distress have been shown to have detrimental effects on health and illness recovery.[4]<\/a>\u00a0Conversely, positive social exchanges substantially improve immune system response to disease.\u00a0[5]<\/a>\u00a0HCPs agree that PPE design should be less frightening to patients.7\u00a0<\/sup>Wearable headshots can lessen the frightening appearance of PPE by personalizing the HCP-patient encounter, thereby reduce patient stress. Furthermore, the wearable photos provide a modicum of social bond, enhancing the patient\u2019s ability to benefit from positive social encounter boosts in health outcomes. 8<\/p>\n

What gave rise to the PPE Portrait Project?<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

When the Ebola crises exploded on the ground and in the press in late summer and early fall of 2014, my immediate response was that photography had a role in mitigating the suffering caused by the terrifying appearance of health care workers clad in personal protective equipment. My question was embarrassingly simple:\u00a0\u201cWhy don\u2019t they put portrait photos on the outside of the PPE?\u201d\u00a0<\/em>Given my long interest in the intersection of the body, photography and illness, I realized that I was positioned to make a small photographic intervention that could have outsized psychosocial, and even medical, benefits.<\/p>\n

Biography<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I earned my MFA in photography at the California Institute of the Arts, mentored in the history of physiognomy in photography by the distinguished photographer and historian, Allan Sekula. A fellow at the Whitney Museum of Art Independent Study Program, I studied and made art through the lens of critical theories of representation, race, and gender. My courses are informed by critical histories of the instrumental uses of photography vis-a-vis bodies, including medical, scientific, criminology, and popular images. My artwork often uses the visual rhetoric of medical and scientific imaging against the grain to grapple with how we emerge as individuals in the cross hairs of these powerful institutions. The interplay of corporeality and its representation is an ongoing animating theme in my work.<\/p>\n

The PPE Portrait Project is made possible by generous support from the Arnold P. Gold Foundation for humanities in medicine, and grants from Occidental College.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/a>1\u00a0<\/sup>Gammon, J. The psychological consequences of source isolation: a review of the literature. J. Clinic Nurs. 1999<\/a>; 8:13-12.<\/p>\n

<\/a>2 Knowles H (1993) The experience of infectious patients in isolation.\u00a0Nursing Times.\u00a0<\/em>89,30, 53-56.<\/p>\n

<\/a>3 Gould D. (1987)\u00a0Infection and Patient Care.\u00a0<\/em>William Heinmann Medical Books, London.<\/p>\n

4<\/sup>\u00a0Broeder JL (1985) School-age children\u2019s perceptions of isolation, after hospital discharge.\u00a0American Journal of Maternal and Child Nursing. 14, 3, 153-174.<\/em><\/p>\n

[4]<\/a>\u00a0Karelina K, DeVries, AC (2011)\u00a0Modeling Social Influences on Human Health.<\/em>\u00a0Psychosom Med. January; 73(1): 67-74.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Karelina et al. p.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    7<\/sup>\u00a0Baig AS, Knapp C, Eagan, AE, Radonovich, LJ (2010) Health care worker\u2019s views about respirator use and features that should be included in the next generation of respirators.\u00a0American Journal of Infection Control, 38,\u00a0<\/em>18-25.<\/p>\n

    8<\/sup>\u00a0Baig, et al. p.5.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Mary Beth Heffernan PPE Portrait Project \u201cThe patients arrive, at first fearful of the people in spacesuits whose faces they cannot see.\u201d Daniel Berehulak. NY Times, October 31, 2014 The PPE Portrait Project is an art intervention designed to improve Ebola care. Inspired by Joseph Beuys\u2019 notion of \u201csocial sculpture,\u201d I seek to ameliorate the alienating appearance of the Ebola \u201chazmat\u201d suits with headshot portraits of the health care workers inside. It\u2019s important to me that the portrait labels have read more<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-764","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ppeportrait.org\/create\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ppeportrait.org\/create\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ppeportrait.org\/create\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ppeportrait.org\/create\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ppeportrait.org\/create\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=764"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ppeportrait.org\/create\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/764\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":786,"href":"https:\/\/www.ppeportrait.org\/create\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/764\/revisions\/786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ppeportrait.org\/create\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}