Do you actually wear gloves/gowns/masks ?

[Nepenthe Sea]

I am a second-semester nursing student, and just finished my first clinical rotation at a local hopsital. I know that nursing school is different from the real world, and that working nurses will do things differently from what we were taught in school. But I am just wondering if you guys actually use your gloves/gowns/masks when a patient is on special precautions. At the hospital where I was assigned, I had patients with VRE, MRSA and C-diff. All of them were on contact precuations and one also had droplet precautions. NONE of the nurses caring for these patients wore anything besides gloves. My friends that were assigned to a different hospital said that they encountered the same thing, except that alot of the nurses there didn't even wear gloves. Is this pretty common in the real world? I know that Medicaid and/or Medicare has decided that they will no longer reimburse for treatment of hospital-acquired infections, so it seems like everybody would really be using their PPE. I personally have two small children and the last thing I need is to expose them to any of this stuff, so I used the gowns and masks. Do you just quit being afraid after awhile, or are there just alot of careless nurses where I live? Please don't flame me, I'm just asking for an honest answer.

Thanks!

[MassED, BSN, RN]

While I'd absolutely love to wear more PPE for patients who are on various types of isolation, my workplace purposely understaffs and undersupplies us all the time.

We don't have masks or gowns in stock half of the time. Therefore, the only PPE I can get my hands on are the gloves.

wow. Time to find a new job if you don't have the necessities for basic care.

[dizzejan]

i'll make it simple..yes..always..it's not smart not to..

[zebsmom2002]

With contact precautions, if I'm only going in to check the IV or ask them a quick question & I'm not going to have any contact with the patient or their immediate environment, I admit it, I don't put one on. Gloves & good handwashing though. Otherwise I do. (If ya do it every time, you'll run out of gowns before the end of the shift & won't have one when you really need it)

If the person's only on contact precautions, I don't wear a mask.

[mbarcher]

well if you're in nursing long enough you're gonna be "colonized" with mrsa... especially in the nares. if i just go into spike an iv i don't get all dressed ready for the ebola virus! staph aureus or just plain staph is a bacteria found on the skin of everybody. just google it... i spent several years in the army many moons ago and the hepatitis guys were always the coolest... lol... my favorite place to hide! i just practice real good hand washing technique for the most part... but if you have open wounds or respiratory i'd be a leary of those cases.

30 years in nursing i suppose i oughta count my blessings... but i can remember long before aids that we as nurses were not allowed to wear gloves because it might "offend" the patient... now you wear gloves for everything even to put somebody on the bedpan... the only time i put 'em on for say a blood sugar is when my instructor was watching or some inspector from state... and i find it more diffucult to find a rolling vein with thick gloves on too. but when you're in a hurry... i gues just use common sense...

michael

[sdwmb]

While I'd absolutely love to wear more PPE for patients who are on various types of isolation, my workplace purposely understaffs and undersupplies us all the time.

We don't have masks or gowns in stock half of the time. Therefore, the only PPE I can get my hands on are the gloves.

If they are not suppling you with ppe, then call OSHA! I bet they won't be able to get it to you fast enough

[karmil]

I am Home Health/Hospice Nurse and always wear gloves and whatever I need to prevent getting or giving infection. I would report any nurse to Infection Control who is lazy or sloppy in these guidelines.

[shah]

While I'd absolutely love to wear more PPE for patients who are on various types of isolation, my workplace purposely understaffs and undersupplies us all the time.

We don't have masks or gowns in stock half of the time. Therefore, the only PPE I can get my hands on are the gloves.

I think you need to contact your infection control person about it and if nothing is done, report your facility to the state and JHACO.

I will not go into an isolation room without proper PPE for the love of the Lord. I would walk away from a job that did not value my health or was so unethical.

[shah]

[quote=mbarcher;3942746

30 years in nursing I suppose I oughta count my blessings... But I can remember long before AIDS that we as nurses were NOT allowed to wear gloves because it might "offend" the patient... NOW you wear gloves for everything even to put somebody on the bedpan... The only time I put 'em on for say a blood sugar is when my instructor was watching or some inspector from State... and I find it more diffucult to find a rolling vein with thick gloves on too. But when you're in a hurry... I gues just use common sense...

Michael

Sorry, Michael, your thirty lucky years have made you complacent. Every time you touch blood, you expose yourself and others to blood borne pathogens. The good old days when you started nursing did not have such a blooming variety of killer germs. Penicillin still worked.

[CASTLEGATES]

I'm one of the anal one's who does so every time. Leading by example does help those not following hospital policy. Do you know WHY these patients have resistant bacteria? Because they're not isolated well enough. Correct docs if you see them go in and if you see a flopping tie without a tack, ask him to culture it. They're laden with resistant bacteria, studies show and they're just as filthy as the old nurses hats and stethescopes. Even if you're a peon, you have a right to tell the doc to glove and gown or get a write up and an invitation to be cultured.

I've got a couple decades and I am not colonized by anything resistant.

Follow policy and don't touch your nose or face at work unless you wash your paws, glove before touching anyone and take off and wash your scrub jacket when you're done working. Don't use the same dirty one.

Just my thoughts...ask your infection control nurse at the facility; they'll have all kinds of horror stories.

[escpthemadnss]

I'm an LPN in a LTC facility and I've wondered this same question. We have 2 hospitals in town. With the smaller hospital, whenever we send residents there, they come back just fine. Sometimes (rarely) they even come back with no pressure areas. The larger hospital is a different story. Almost every single resident we send out there comes back with MRSA. If they're there for more than a week, they're also pretty much guaranteed to come back with at least a stage I pressure area on the sacrum or heels, excoriation on the groin & buttocks for incontinent residents, and likely to have excoriation in the axilla and under breasts.

At work we have a full set of PPEs hung on the door when a resident has an MDRO (multi-drug resistant organism) and no one does any care without being properly protected. The few who have tried have been written up.

Our residents have enough health issues to deal with and the MRSA or VRE on top of that is sometimes more than some of these people can handle.

I started as a CNA, got my LPN, and now am taking classes and should be done my RN in a year. I haven't forgotten the things I've learned along the way and one of those is that PPEs are not optional when there's a chance of passing on something so contagious.

[RedhairedNurse, BSN, RN]

if there is mrsa in the wound and i'm doing a dressing change, then yes, i'll wear gloves and gown.. but to just give meds, then no i just wear gloves. mrsa in the blood and i'm drawing blood, i'll wear ppe.

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if i have to clean up poop on somebody that isn't even in precautions, i will wear gown and gloves and sometimes a mask.

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how about the times when we care for these people and learn a few days later they have mrsa or cdiff???? i take precautions for everything, that's why i wear a gown when cleaning poop on somebody that isn't positive.......who knows they may end up positive in a couple of days. think about it!!!

what about all these people that are walking around in walmart that are cdiff or mrsa and don't even know it???? ***??

common sense!!!!

[RedhairedNurse, BSN, RN]

It is different when u r actually working as a nurse. Anyone who has MRSA, VRE, etc are on at least contact precautions. But once u work for a while and u know what type and where, u just use ur own judgement. Depends on what u r going in the room 2 do w/ the patient as 2 what u have 2 wear. If u just walk in the room w/ someone that has C-Diff and put everything on just 2 check the IV bag, or something 2 that nature for example??? No, there is no point b/c u know there is no contact w/ it. Just remember ur basic handwashing precations. U learn 2 pick and choose what ur gonna take the time 4.

I'm sorry but it really bugs me to see someone type like this, especially someone in our profession. You should be adult enough to type out your words. Please, with all due respect, it's time to start typing like a professional. Thank you.