Title: Breathing Easy: Empowering Hospital Staff Against Air Pollution – A Clean Air Day Initiative
Authors: Dr Grishma Pradip, Dr Hatty Douthwaite, Dr Berkay Sahin, Dr Bright George, Dr Laura-Jane Smith
Background
Air pollution is a public health emergency: causing 36,000 deaths, 20,000+ respiratory & cardiovascular admissions, 6 million sick days, with an estimated total social cost of £22.6 billion every year in the UK.
Objective
In 2023 as part of “Clean Air Day”, the UK’s largest air pollution campaign, the project sought to raise awareness amongst all multi-disciplinary hospital staff of the detrimental health impacts of air pollution affecting every organ of the body. The project also sought to understand gaps in staff knowledge and the barriers to public health promotion.
Methodology
The team created an entertaining Clean Air Day Quiz for all multi-disciplinary staff across two major hospital sites within the trust. The team promoted the quiz with posters, emails, engagement through the trust communications teams, hospital website & encouraged all staff from all fields to complete the quiz with the aid of QR codes and hospital iPads in all departments. We also encouraged staff to become Clean Air Day Crusaders in order to raise awareness of the threat of air pollution and to promote public health. Environmentally-friendly, locally donated prizes were given to randomly selected staff who completed the quiz.
Results
There were 239 respondents; the majority of the respondents were doctors (24.1%) and nurses (25.3%) but the quiz was well received, far reaching and completed by multiple patient-facing staff including administrative staff, allied health professionals and health care assistants. The commonest reported barriers to raising awareness of air-pollution and public health promotion were limited time (41.7%) and lack of knowledge (39%); underscoring the urgent need for raising awareness of air pollution’s profound health ramifications.