PPE is generally designed to be disposable and used only once. There may be times, however, that you will be asked to reuse certain items. There are 2 scenarios that you may encounter with PPE.

The first, extended use, refers to the practice of wearing the same item for repeated close contact encounters with several patients, without removing the PPE between patient encounters. This is generally better suited to patients who are infected with the same infectious disease.

The second, reuse, refers to the practice of using the same item for multiple encounters with patients but removing it (doffing) after each encounter. The PPE is stored in between encounters to be put on again (donned) prior to the next encounter with a patient. 

N95 respirators are common examples of pieces of PPE that are reused or used on an extended-use basis.

When determining if an N95 respirator should be used one-time only, or reused, depends on the specific situation within your facility. The decision to implement these practices should be made on a case by case basis, considering respiratory pathogen characteristics (e.g., routes of transmission, prevalence of disease in the region, infection attack rate, and severity of illness) and local conditions (e.g., number of disposable N95 respirators available, current respirator usage rate, success of other respirator conservation strategies, etc.).

Some healthcare facilities may wish to implement extended use and/or limited reuse before respirator shortages are observed, so that adequate supplies are available during times of peak demand.  

Be sure to speak with your facility's Infection Control Preventionist for guidance on reusing PPE. Each facility will have slightly different recommendations and guidance for reuse.