Focus on Person Centered Care and infection control

[luvmy2angels]

I work in a personal care facility where they are trending towards the person centered care environment which i am totally on board with. Although we are trying to make this as home like as possible i also believe we are still in healthcare and there needs to be some sort of infection control standards in the work place. We were recently told we are no longer allowed to wear gloves in our dining room while cleaning off people's dirty dishes because "you wouldn't wear gloves at home" and "you don't see people wearing gloves in restaraunts."We were told there is no need to wear gloves and no need to worry about infection if you are only handling the proper parts of the silverwear that don't touch the resident's mouth. NOPE...i don't wear gloves at home, but then again I don't serve 90 people either, and the people in my house wash their hands before they sit at my table. I feel that OUR right to protect ourselves has been taken away. Most of the residents do NOT wash their hands before they go into the dining room and some have even sat at the table picking their noses during the meal...and the nursing and dining staff are expected to clear the tables without wearing gloves!!!??? Am I the only one that thinks this is wrong?? But then again we were told that clean towels can't be kept in the spa room because droplets of water from flushing the toilet can be carried through the air and land on clean towels. This is very confusing to all of us at work. Anyone know who i can contact to see if they can take away our right to protect ourselves???

[Scarlette Wings]

Don't you have an infection control nurse there where you work? I would get them involved or whomever holds that position. You are very right, home is one place, medical establishments are another! I feel you and I'm with you on this one.

[luvmy2angels]

yes, we do have an infection control nurse. I will talk to her about this. Thanks, nice to know i'm not crazy, LOL!!

[BrandonLPN, LPN]

If you want to wear gloves while clearing tables, you should be able to. But calling it an "infection control" issue is pretty melodramatic. It's 100% appropriate to clear dirty dishes without gloves and then quick wash your hands before returning to pt

care.

I think it's wrong for your work to tell you you can't wear gloves if you want to. But unless your resdents are sucking on the spoon handles or scratching their butts with the forks or something, it IS kinda overkill.