Getting CNAs to WEAR GLOVES & WASH HANDS?!?!

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Any suggestions on how to enforce the importance of infection control??? Over the past 2 weeks we have had 4 new residents get UTIs the bacteria...e-coli. Some of the aides don't wear gloves at all and don't wash hands, some wear gloves and don't change them between residents. Last week we had an aide going around and cleaning under residents fingernails USING THE SAME ORANGE STICK for all of them! No matter how many times they are reminded to wear gloves and wash hands they DON'T do it!! Is this something that you can write up a CNA for?? I am thinking we need to do something to drive home the point of infection control because talking to them is like talking to a WALL!!! Any suggestions??

Specializes in Burn/Trauma PCU.

Ugh... GROSS. :barf02:

Where I work as a CNA, hand hygiene (and the enforcement of it) is a pretty big thing, and at least on the m/b floor I'm on, I've never had a problem with other staff not utilizing proper hand hygiene (I'm borderline OCD about it myself :rolleyes: ). I did use to work on a med/surg floor where a few of the staff wouldn't routinely wear protective gear other than gloves, like going into a contact isolation room without the gown (and leaning all over the patient, who had MRSA or scabies or whatever). Ugh.

My suggestion would be to talk to whomever is in charge - not sure who that is where you work, but our first line of contact would be the asst RN mgr on our floor, then the nursing supervisor, and so on. Are there any other staff members who have expressed the same concern? Encourage them to say something as well (that whole strength-in-numbers thing).

Good luck!

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Specializes in Peds Rehab, Informatics.

At the hospital where I work, our infection control director presented a very powerful obit of a man who actually died from a hospital aquired infection. This really hit home for all of us, the thought that we could actually be hurting our patient! Worse still, there is always the possibility that you could aquire an infection or bring it home to your family. It seems to me that not washing your hands/wearing gloves is a sign of not caring about your patients well being! I understand it is a hard habit to develop but isn't the well being of our patients worth it? ;)

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Maby you might have to have an in service training on infection control and hand washing for those CNA's who don't it very well. and some CNA's are extremely careful about infection control.

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Some (NOT all) of the CNAs I've worked with couldn't care less and have such bad attitudes it almost isn't worth trying to teach them about handwashing, infection control, etc. I teach all of my patients the importance of handwashing (hey, it's our job to do so, right?) and tell them it's perfectly okay to ask their caregivers to wash their hands and put on gloves before performing care. I've seen them speak up numerous times, and the caregivers comply. Funny how the CNAs seem to listen/understand better when it comes straight from the patient (who consequently also fills out the satisfaction survey at discharge). ;-)

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Specializes in starting pn school this fall!!.

i would think that having your infection control nurse inservice all nursing staff (nurses and cna's), about the importance of hand washing and using protective items like gloves and gowns (when appropriate) and what the consequences are if found not using them or washing your hands. i also work in ltc and we too have staff cna's and nurses who do not always use gloves or wash thier hands after care or dressing changes ect.. it honestly grosses me out!

i don't think telling the cna's that a person may have something like herpies is a bad idea! if a nurse were to tell me that and then not tell me who, as i will ask, i would start looking at residents dx until i foud out whom it was. and like someone else already said i would surley wouldn't trust you when it came to anything like that again!! fortunately the nurses are always very up front with us cna's about what infections our residents have so we can be sure to protect ourselves.

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I would explain to them that touching any patient without using the protection of gloves could in reality be like signing their own death certificate. We were taught to be warry of everyone. The one person who you feel you know would not have AIDS or some other communicable disease is probably the person who does have one. Also just becouse some one is elderly doesnt mean that they have not been sexually active recently and could have undiagnosed HIV. If this doesnt scare them into wearing gloves and washing hands than they dont deserve to be caring for anyone and should be punished up to and including termination.

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Specializes in Critical Care/ICU.
I worked in a LTC (as a social worker, not a nurse) and that home had a fiercely enforced policy about gloves. The CNA was not allowed to don gloves until ready for patient care and had to take them off immediately after patient care. Any CNA caught "traveling" with gloves on was instantly written up even if they just forgot to remove them before leaving a patient room.

I like this and I think it should be applied everywhere in every LTC and hospital for every single person, no matter who they are.

What drives me nuts is when I see a transport person pushing a patient down a hallway in the hospital wearing gloves!!?!!

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speaking of the elderly of having HIV/AIDS, i did a paper on that last semester in class about how the elderly are becoming increasingly affected w/ that disease, and how often it goes un-dx! (i'm sure a lot has to deal with Viagra!)

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I worked in a LTC (as a social worker, not a nurse) and that home had a fiercely enforced policy about gloves. The CNA was not allowed to don gloves until ready for patient care and had to take them off immediately after patient care. Any CNA caught "traveling" with gloves on was instantly written up even if they just forgot to remove them before leaving a patient room.

the first semester of nursing school when we were doing clinicals in the nursing home, my resident was in his gerichair in the hallway by the nsg. desk while i was charting, and he started to throw up a little, so i grabbed a pair of gloves off the side of the med cart and some napkins and went over to help him, and my teacher jumped s*** about me having gloves on in the hallway! I know that it is against DHEC regulations to have gloves on in the hallway, but i was like, "HELLO! Body fluids!?! I completely ignored her the whole time and helped him. After that, i mentioned it to my advisor (the other nsg. instructor), and she said i did the right thing. sometimes people cant "bend the rules a little"!

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Specializes in ED.
speaking of the elderly of having HIV/AIDS, i did a paper on that last semester in class about how the elderly are becoming increasingly affected w/ that disease, and how often it goes un-dx! (i'm sure a lot has to deal with Viagra!)

Alot of people don't equate having sexual education and the older population. Condoms should be available at LTC facilities.

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I know all about the rules for not wearing gloves in the hall (I did infection control for a while), but doggone it, just yesterday I had to carry blood-soaked dressings to the soiled utility room (no red bin in the room). I wasn't about to do it with bare hands. Same thing with the Foley I removed the other day.

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I am sorry I was led to believe that you had to have some sort of education to be a CNA my bad. I get paid very well for what I do and then again there are CNAs who get paid very well to do nothing. Yes tell them that someone has herpes or scabies.

ohhh wait worms...there are more than 15 million people in the U.S. that are infected and don't even know it :barf02:

Where did you get that stat? ( >15 million people in the US infected with worms)

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