Gloves? Is this acceptable?

[medsurgRNCali]

I know we are suppose to use gloves for everything. And I always put gloves on as soon as i go into the room , but I have seen many nurses not use gloves if they are just passing a oral med. Is this acceptable? In reality you are not touching the patient, you scan his band, scan the med and put it in the med cup. I can see why they wouldn't use gloves, it seems it would be easier to open those dang pills without them! But isnt this frowned upon?

[osceteacher]

Yeah, I wear gloves if I'm giving tablets. But I probably need to touch less than 5% of the drugs I ever give orally/generally.

[klone, MSN, RN]

I don't touch the medications...

Nor do I, hence the no gloves.

[TheDudeWithTheBigDog, ADN, RN]

Even if you don't technically have to: If you went out to eat, and your server, instead of carrying your burger on a plate, just carried it in their bare hands, and then just handed it to you, would you want to actually eat that burger? Or when you're in a public bathroom, do you want some random person touching you? That's why you use gloves anyway. You don't need them to check a blood pressure, but your patient probably doesn't want you not using those gloves.

[Medic/Nurse, BSN, RN]

Especially for suppositories

Yeah!! Sometimes - DOUBLE GLOVE or just pop on a surgical pair (longer, thicker!)

AND !!!!!!

sallyrnrrt gets a Davey Do Toon CONGRATS!!!!!

*********

I am so wont to even bring this up, but anyone have THAT patient that WANTED suppositories.

Yeah, that. I had a therapeutic discussion about my I was NOT sticking my fingers up this guys bum.

Drug delivery routes. Yeah, options are EVERYTHING!

Okay, no longer triggered. Onward.

:angel:

[Medic/Nurse, BSN, RN]

To the OP.

Never be sorry to ask a question. I'm sorry if you feel like it's not welcome - it is.

Please ask questions. That's what we are here for - perspective and opinions.

Simple answer. Nursing is tough. Everyone does things different. This is not a hill to surrender on. You got this.

The first few months I could not have found my ass with GPS, compass, Google Maps and a bread crumb trail. To glove or not and when - as long as they are on the wall and you can readily grab them and the wet, sticky stuff that does not belong to you stays off you and you never touch it - yay gloves!!

I was awkward around patients. I didn't know what to do with myself at time. Organization, gloves, alcohol pads, saline flushes, scanning, documentation. Heck, I'm lucky I didn't kill lots of people. Whew!!

It gets better.

Onward intrepid angel!

You will be great, gloved or not - check policy, be comfortable.

:angel:

[cleback]

For those who glove no matter what, I'd encourage you to reconsider using gloves when washing hands would suffice. Medical waste is a very real, very large worldwide problem. It would be wonderful if we can all do our part to reduce what waste we can.

[Davey Do]

Belinda, my medical nurse wife, was watching a biography on Freddie Mercury yesterday when I asked her about some timelines. I believe she said that Mr. Mercury tested positive for HIV in the early/mid 80's. I immediately had a flashback-

I remember helping out in ER as an LPN in 1984 and asking the Paramedics why they were wearing gloves, as it seemed strange at the time. (As strange as the first time I remember seeing a woman pumping her own gas.) One of the Paramedics informed me of a disease that could be passed through blood called AIDS.

HIV or AIDS neither one was in the Taber's Medical Dictionary I used for my LPN program the year before.

My first job after graduating as an LPN was in a Mom & Pop Nursing Home where I have no recollection of wearing gloves to provide hygienic measures for incontinent patients.

We've come a long way, baby!

[ATTACH=CONFIG]27304[/ATTACH]

[Nunya, BSN]

Even if you don't technically have to: If you went out to eat, and your server, instead of carrying your burger on a plate, just carried it in their bare hands, and then just handed it to you, would you want to actually eat that burger? Or when you're in a public bathroom, do you want some random person touching you? That's why you use gloves anyway. You don't need them to check a blood pressure, but your patient probably doesn't want you not using those gloves.

I've never had someone ask me to wear gloves when doing things like VS...

[silverbat]

While as a nurse I understand the use of gloves when bodily fluids are present and I wear them then.

As a patient with 5 surgeries in 3 years, I found it off-putting to see a staff member don gloves to turn my scds on. Or to use the forehead/ temple thermometer. Or even to hang my IV meds. The nurses who were not afraid to hug me or a pat on the shoulder or hand meant the world to me when I was crying from fear and pain. Yes, the gloves were needed to empty hemo-vac or do dressing changes but not to hand me a paper cup with meds.

I agree with a PP- in the Late 70's as an aide, gloves were rarely worn even for code browns. They were generally used by the nurses and we aides were not encouraged to wear them.

I'm not going to say it's wrong to wear gloves at all times. It's easy to say oh my patient wants that too. But do they?

I was more concerned when staff skipped the hand washing.

[dthfytr, ADN, LPN, RN, EMT-B, EMT-I]

Talk to a NICU nurse. Babies die if they don't get human touching. All people need the occasional human contact. Anybody that is afraid to touch a pt without gloves might benefit from therapy. In the mean time, beware of door knobs! IMHO.

[osceteacher]

Even if you don't technically have to: If you went out to eat, and your server, instead of carrying your burger on a plate, just carried it in their bare hands, and then just handed it to you, would you want to actually eat that burger? Or when you're in a public bathroom, do you want some random person touching you? That's why you use gloves anyway. You don't need them to check a blood pressure, but your patient probably doesn't want you not using those gloves.

You've made a really weird leap here where you're equating random strangers in a toilet to the nurse-patient relationship. But my real issue is the part about taking a blood pressure 'your patient probably doesn't want you to not use gloves'.

This study is very small sample size however:

Only 4 out of 142 of the public thought glove use during blood pressure measurement was a preference with a hundred+ feeling 'unconformable if used.

10 out of 142 thought it was relevant for oral medications.

So again, using the limited evidence we have, the public do not expect or want glove use all the time, this is a fallacy.

In fact one could argue looking at some of the comments, inappropriate glove use made the patient feel worse.

I am quite clean; unless the HCW needed protecting from the washing cream or me from them, it made the task more difficult and probably unnecessarily exposed me to latex

They had gloves on the whole time they treated me; no need for gloves when writing notes

[Nunya, BSN]

You've made a really weird leap here where you're equating random strangers in a toilet to the nurse-patient relationship. But my real issue is the part about taking a blood pressure 'your patient probably doesn't want you to not use gloves'.

This study is very small sample size however:

Only 4 out of 142 of the public thought glove use during blood pressure measurement was a preference with a hundred+ feeling 'unconformable if used.

10 out of 142 thought it was relevant for oral medications.

So again, using the limited evidence we have, the public do not expect or want glove use all the time, this is a fallacy.

In fact one could argue looking at some of the comments, inappropriate glove use made the patient feel worse.

Isn't that interesting that some people would feel uncomfortable with gloves while they're getting their genitals washed, wound dressing changed or blood drawn? And by interesting I mean í ¾í´¢. And I use gloves when clearing off the bedside table as the wipes I've used are carcinogenic. Plus a lot of people just put their used tissues there....