So I had my first clinical day for OB and my instructor told us not to wear gloves when doing vitals for the post-partum mom. I was totally in shock. I told her that I normally wear gloves every time I'm doing vitals or a Head to toe assessment just in case an unexpected situation came up. Or what if I had to help change a pad or something I wouldn't want to say " hold on for a minute or two let me grab some gloves" Anyway she said that they are not needed when doing VS. I find this very contradicting in that we as nurses and student must always use standard precaution, we must always treat everyone as if they are infected. Now, If I'm providing comforting measures or holding someones hand, I may not use gloves all the time, but they are still close by.
So my question is do you or do you not wear gloves when taking vitals. I'm just curious here...
Maybe I've been wrong for wearing gloves all this time ?
I was told that it is just common practice for infection control. You don't want to transfer anything to the patient's environment that could possibly get them sick.
exactly. all those hands grabbing in the box, especially those people who dont wash their hands and just grab gloves
Yep. And what about how we change gloves mid bath? Or grab other gloves during a poop change??
Again, wearing gloves for vital signs is wasteful, offensive to the pt, and gives a false sense of security. All in all it points to a lack of basic education is standard precautions.
There's no harm in saying, "let me grab a pair of gloves", especially when the gloves should be no more than a couple of feet away from you on the wall in the patient's room.
I just started reading this thread but this is my answer as well.
Our gloves are in the room over the sink just a couple of steps from the bed.
well, since this post was in regards to PP moms, I felt my experience was valid. No need to get snarky
She wasn't being snarky. She really wasn't. Rather, she was just trying to point out that it's not a one-size-fits-all type of situation. What's appropriate for a LOL recovering from hip surgery or a pp mom, could very well be different from what's suitable for an ER trauma victim or a child with a communicable disease. The LOL in the above example might not have any family or close friends who could visit. Also many elderly feel ostracised already by virtue of their age alone and her nurse shouldn't make that feeling worse.
The first is my experience, I went to put a blood pressure cuff on a patient and stuck my hand in a pool of blood under her arm. As an extern on a med/surg floor I do vitals on all kinds of patients (not just my assigned pts). I do not do a head to toe assessment on someone to determine if they have intact skin before obtaining their vitals. I just prefer to side with caution.
The other reason is I always clean the Dynamap with the sanitation wipes afterward. To use those, you must wear gloves. Since I will be putting on gloves before I leave the room anyways I just go ahead and do the VS with them on. I want to do my small part in reducing the spread of infection. The "abuse of gloves" is worth it in my opinion if it can save someones life. After having a pt die from a probable hospital acquired MRSA infection I think many would feel that way.
A very common sense approach to the decision of wearing or not wearing gloves is to think who you are contaminating. If there is a risk of carrying any type of illness from one bed to another, gloves should be worn.
by the way: in my pp clinical two days ago, the nurse told me I had to wear gloves when assessing the baby (even though I just did a full newborn assessment with my instructor and neither she nor I wore gloves). I was only doing VS and ended up not even touching the baby's skin but I felt like a fool wearing the whole shebang.
Was this before or after the babys first bath? Gloves are a must before the first bath, think about where the bab just came from...
I don't wear gloves to do vitals on my postpartum patients. Nor do I wear them to do the head-to-toe basic assessment (I listen to heart, lungs, belly and check for LE edema). I do glove the hand that will be pulling back the mesh underwear and pad for the fundal check, but I use an ungloved hand to do the check itself. Touching that (intact) skin can give me a lot of information that wouldn't necessarily come through a glove. I can assess skin tone, localized temperature, hydration, and other subtle things that help me form an overall impression of mom's general health and recovery.
I put on gloves when I get new patients up to the bathroom for the first time. And I wear them to empty the foley bag, of course. But for vital signs, no.
When universal precautions (now called standard precautions) first came around, there was a much-needed push to glove, glove, glove to overcome the resistance offered by those who thought wearing gloves wasn't necessary and maybe even a little "fussy." I remember this battle in EMS, as well. But greater awareness of diseases like HIV/AIDS, hepatitis, and other nasty bugs helped to serve as motivating factors. Instructors instilled a level of paranoia that had glove manufacturers in ecstasy.
Now, we see the opposite end of the spectrum where we are hyper-attuned to the germ universe. This is good to an extent, but doing reasonable things like washing hands, using alcohol wipes or sanitizers on stethoscopes and other equipment, and keeping gloves in every room really do a lot to reduce risk.
The reality is that germs are a part of life. Recent research seems to indicate the kids raised in an antibacterial atmosphere tend to have weaker immune systems because they've been under-exposed to the normal flora and fauna of everyday living.
The biggest challenge in a hospital setting is not so much keeping yourself from getting diseases (reasonable precautions should manage that), but rather preventing the transfer of germs from one patient to the next. Again, hand washing, cleaning equipment, and using common sense can go a long way toward achieving that goal.
Students should do what their instructors tell them to do, but I believe gloves for v/s are overkill.
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cardiacRN2006, ADN, RN
4,106 Posts
What makes you think the gloves are clean?