COVID-19: New guidance on PPE, mobile practice issues, more

The COVID-19 emergency is a fast-evolving situation, and the AVMA is working ceaselessly to answer the many questions facing our veterinary community daily. We've recently added two critically important tools to our COVID-19 webpage: guidelines for conserving personal protective equipment (PPE) during the emergency, and operational advice for mobile and house call veterinarians.

Other new resources on the page include advice to help protect and maintain wellbeing during the pandemic, and downloadable social media images that you and your clients can use to help disseminate factual, science-based information about COVID-19.

Guidance on conserving PPE

With some medical products in short supply, all medical professionals, including veterinarians, have been asked to conserve PPE until supplies become more readily available. The new AVMA guidelines for use of PPE when demand exceeds supply during the COVID-19 pandemic address questions about how to do that while still protecting personnel.

Postponing elective procedures that require the use of PPE is one way of conserving. Other strategies can include safely extending the use of disposable PPE, re-using disposable PPE, or increasing the use of washable PPE. The new guidance document provides greater detail and answers to frequently asked questions.

Help for mobile and house call veterinarians

Veterinarians with house call or mobile practices, whether treating small or large animals, face special considerations in light of the need for all people to distance themselves socially from others as much as possible. For this reason, AVMA has published recommendations specific to the situations facing mobile and house call veterinary teams during the pandemic. 

These include screening questions to ask before appointments are scheduled and carried out, and options for limiting risk to veterinary teams from contact with clients or others while providing needed medical care to patients.

Making wellbeing a priority

The COVID-19 outbreak is changing the daily lives of Americans, including veterinary teams. From mandatory lockdowns and social distancing to new challenges in providing patient care, there’s a lot that can affect our mental health. COVID-19 and wellbeing provides practical advice for veterinary professionals to meet the emotional challenges of this unprecedented situation.

Support for fact-based understanding of COVID-19

We’ve also created social media tools to empower both veterinary teams and animal owners to help people better understand COVID-19 and its effects on pets and the veterinary profession. Download AVMA’s free COVID-19 images to share on social media to provide factual, scientific information about the disease.

More resources to come

All of these resources are available on the AVMA’s dedicated COVID-19 webpage, along with a wide range of other materials to answer questions and support the veterinary community. These include in-depth information about COVID-19 and the novel coronavirus that causes it, information about caring for veterinary patients, FAQs for both veterinary professionals and pet owners, updates on relief measures being enacted in Washington, and more.

The AVMA is committed to provide the factual, reliable information that veterinary teams need to address this worldwide pandemic, and to answer the veterinary community’s many questions.  We continue to add resources and update our COVID-19 resources constantly, and we’ll keep you updated here on our blog as we do. Subscribe to the blog to receive daily emails of new blog posts we’ve published, and follow our social media pages to see the information we’re sharing there.