The Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Portrait Project is a hybrid art & medical intervention designed to improve patient care and team dynamics by humanizing the alienating appearance of PPE, through warm, smiling headshot portraits fixed to the outside of the healthcare worker’s PPE. This is meant to:
- Reduce patient isolation and fears.
- Increase trust and connection with the healthcare professional.
- Increase patient awareness of who is taking care of them.
- Humanize healthcare workers and increase team dynamics.
This project was created by Mary Beth Heffernan (www.ppeportrait.org), who developed the PPE portrait guidelines in consultation with the World Health Organization (WHO)-Liberia Case Management Team during the 2014-2016 Ebola epidemic in West Africa.
In light of COVID-19, this project has been brought to Canada by a Montreal-based team called the Intensive Care Unit Bridge Program (ICUBP, www.icubridgeprogram.org). Major healthcare centers around Canada have since adopted the ICUBP's PPE Portraits at their sites: Montreal General Hospital, Montreal Children's Hospital, SickKids, the Ottawa Hospital, Toronto General Hospital, and Sunnybrook Hospital.