Eeeeeewwwww!

Nurses General Nursing

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My daughter came home from clinicals today and said "I realize that nursing home rules are different from hospital rules, but aren't you still supposed to change gloves in between patients?"

She saw a CNA go from cleaning one incontinent male to cleaning an incontinent female without changing gloves. I asked her if she was sure about that, and she said the CNA was the one she was assigned to follow today.

Ick! I wonder what the rate of nosocomial infections is at that place?

Yes, I'd believe it. Sad. Unfortunately, a lot of CNA's (and some nurses) think the gloves are there for just their protection. It doesn't even cross their minds that it is for patient safety and infection control as well. You'll see lots of EEEEWWWWS unfortunately as you continue your career. But it's your duty to say something. Sometimes they just may not know.

What kind of facility do you work and and WHY would they discourage the use of gloves??

We did clinicals at a nursing home that does not allow gloves to be kept in the patient rooms. They are all stored in the hallway, which isn't very easy to access when you have an accident in the room or there's a bigger mess than you anticipated. I felt like they were attempting to cut down on the use of gloves by doing that.

Whenever we went there I'd grab a big handful of gloves and stuff them in my pocket.

UTIs would be the least of the problems. MRSA, E.coli, and other pathogens are probably all over that nursing home.

Specializes in Rural.

We have a physician that NEVER washes his hands. He is also the type that will just rip off your head whenever you say something that sounds like criticism. At one time we discussed this in class and our instructor said try saying something like : Isn't it nice how they put the sink right next to the door in our rooms. It makes it so easy to wash your hands between patients." Sounds good, but I still have not had the guts to say something to this doctor.

I never appreciated the hand sanitizer dispenser that was at every door in our hospital until I started working in LTC!! :scrying:

My preceptor at this new LTC was doing blood sugars w/o gloves, and it almost made my hair rise on end. I told her I don't touch fluids without gloves, so now she wears them, at least when I'm there.

Specializes in PICU, Nurse Educator, Clinical Research.

:barf01::barf01::barf01::barf01::barf01:

Where I work it is rare that the PSW's even put on gloves, and mangment discourages the use of gloves.

Even though that clearly breaks the rules of standard precautions, I doubt it does much to contribute to nosocomial infections as we would think. It is still gross. In fact, a lot of the old timers refuse to wear gloves.

At the last nursing home where I worked, we had a fairly new CNA. She came out of a patient's room after putting them on a bedpan, and with her golves still on, walked by me, asked how I was doing and patted me on the back. I told her how unsanitary that was, and she told me not to worry, the patient was clean when she put him on the bedpan.

She just didn't get the point.

I don't think a lot of CNA training programs are very thorough.

Specializes in med/surg.
Where I work it is rare that the PSW's even put on gloves, and mangment discourages the use of gloves.

That is tooooooooooo gross. I won't even change bed linen without a pair of (fresh) gloves on! I have a saying that I can pretty much deal with anything that nursing throws at me as long as I have a pair of gloves on! I have NO intention of changing that when I come to the USA!

If management don't want me to wear gloves then they can do it!

What kind of facility do you work and and WHY would they discourage the use of gloves??

I work in LTC. The management complains that we, (the nursing students that they hired for summer work) use too many gloves. Many of the full time staff have been there for a long time and the only time they use gloves are when they are dealing with someone who has c-diff.

We are always having UTI outbreaks. For the record I always have my scrub pockets filled with gloves, and always carry around alcohol sanitiser.

I guess the reason that the nursing students that work there always wear gloves is because all through school we have had sanitation pounded into our heads, as well as the fact that nurses and PSW's are the best ways to pass around infections in any agency.

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