Question on skin to skin touching - Page 4

I only wear gloves if exposure is likely. Most of my assessments I do with bare hands. If I discover an issue during assessment I pause and put gloves on.

Per Merlee>"And there is an incredible loss of intimacy when there is no skin to skin contact. Would you wrap yourself in plastic to hold your children or grandchildren? Where does this end?"
I wasn't referring to possible pathogens from children. There is no comparison with holding your grandchildren and providing care to strangers in the ER , regarding intimate contact.

What's funny to me is the argument that there are more germs on grocery carts. I always smile when I see mom's who have the shopping cart covers. I always wonder if they wash the cover or if it just stays in their car until the kid is too big for the cart. Regardless of what you do, your child is still going to come into contact with germs. YET, if people sleep people better at night by wearing gloves, or using hand sanitizer, or using shopping cart covers, or sanitizing their phone? What does it matter? Kudos to them.

Wear gloves or don't. Just take care of your patients people.

Hygiene hypothesis, people!

Actually...The shopping cart covers are padded, so they are more comfy for the baby. They also have toys attached to keep baby entertained, and they are harder to wiggle out of than plain old shopping cart straps. But that's beside the point. Yeah they are germy, but so is everything else...Acquired immunity, baby!

I think that it is the nurse's job to make sure there are no feces on the patient's bed, and all of those cords and other items should be clean enough for the patient, that you have no problem touching them. The first thing that I always do while I'm introducing myself to the patient and doing basic assessment, is clean the room with anti-bacterial wipes... anything that the patient or I will touch, including the door knobs. If it isn't clean enough for me to touch, then probably, it isn't conducive to healing for the patient either. I know Flo would agree.

I touch the patient with my bare hands. I washed them prior to touching them, I wash them afterwards. I would not touch a wound or something like that, obviously, but if palpating the abdomen or something I touch the patient.
I think touch is very important for healing, especially if the hospital admission is quite stressful for the patient. Even holding a hand whilst talking to a patient, or a pat as you say good night... touch is important I think. Now that I think about it, some of the most spiritual times I have had with patients have been when holding their hand and having a close discussion with them.

My fundamentals instructor started out as a CNA back in the day. She told me they used to do peri-care with their bare hands back then.

She's alive and kicking still.

I'm a pretty big germophobe, but even I have no problem doing minimal-exposure stuff bare-handed. I wash before and after, and my skin serves as my protection in the meantime.

My serious question to the OP is ... do you shake hands with people? Hand them an object which might involve some brief touching of hands? Hug others? Kiss? Kiss cheeks? Pick up children?

If not, that's your preference. But if you do ... why change tactics just because someone is at the moment sitting or reclining in a hospital bed?

I wear gloves if I am doing ANYTHING with needle, emptying a urinal, or anything that will come in contact with bodily fluids. I have seen the faces of patients who deal with my less than life experienced fellow students who wear gloves to check a radial pulse. Not only are you wasting resources you are being rude IMO. If the body part I am touching is not soiled, and I wash my hands before and after, then we are fine. Perfect example: 90yo female patient with AFib and mild dementia comes in and we do the initial work up on her...each and every time I checked on her she wanted to hold my hand, imagine her confusion and horror if I was wearing gloves! What a horrible experience. Listening to heart and lung sounds? As long as they dont have crap all over them, why wear gloves?