Gloves or not for IV meds?

[Shibby3]

So in my 3rd year of nursing we have a class simulation on how to be supportive and informative "buddy nurses" as nursing has the inevitable duty of educating student nurses. In this simulation I was to pretend to be a buddy nurse to a 2nd year student and guide my student in administering IV antibiotics.

As we were about to administer it we both put on gloves, which the educator then walked in and questioned why we were wearing gloves. On my clinical placements I was always instructed to wear gloves giving medication through the IV, blood present or not.. The educator argued that unless it was not a one way valve cannula, or if there was no blood/bodily fluids present there is no need to wear gloves in this situation. I would partially agree with this, however I would rather my student always wear gloves in this situation than not wear them when it is necessary. I was a little bit annoyed at this, is it really that necessary to savour the resources of gloves to put a student at risk?

So who wears/doesn't wear gloves in this situation and why?

[dandk1997RN, MSN, RN]

Even if there is tegaderm on it (which, yes, there always is at my hospital, too,) there is an opening in the tegaderm where the line comes out, and if it is bleeding of there is infiltration, it will come out there, and if you are palpating it, you are at risk of touching the fluids. I guess the bottom line is we all learn different ways- if you palpate over the tegaderm at my school, you fail.

[Shibby3]

Thanks for all your responses it definitely seems to be a workplace/personal preference kind of thing. I think wearing & not wearing gloves both have their pros and cons and I guess just as with all other aspects of nursing, we need to assess the situation. Seeing as with DRABC we always check the dangers to our own personal safety first it would make sense to wear gloves if we have any reason to believe our safety is compromised in the situation. I think to summarise this thread I might conclude that:

1 - follow hospital policy/protocol no matter your own personal preference

2 - If it states neither, do what makes you feel comfortable as neither wearing or not wearing gloves is not going to make a difference to the patient if you follow aseptic technique and make sure your gloves/hands aren't touching things they shouldn't.

Would anyone disagree with this?

[sdprcrn]

Clean gloves used as PERSONAL PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT are for the staff's safety, not the patient's. The BIG problem with using gloves inappropriately is that people using them go on to touch other items without thinking about changing the gloves. Can you imagine that you have just emptied a patient's urinal wearing gloves and then give the person a drink of water with those same gloves on? I've seen it happen and that's more gross that touch an IV tubing without gloves on.

[tokyoROSE, BSN, RN]

No, I don't wear gloves when giving IV meds. There is no need, but it doesn't hurt to wear them either if you are in the habit of that. I haven't been to a facility that requires gloving with IV meds.

[NCRNMDM, ASN, RN]

I don't wear gloves when dealing with peripheral IV lines or central lines (as long as there isn't any risk that I am going to be contaminated with blood). I do wear gloves when drawing blood from a line of any sort. If I am just hanging fluids or IV medications, flushing a line, or pushing a medication via IVP, then I don't wear gloves. If I was in the situation that you were in, I would tell the student that, for this specific procedure, gloves were not necessary. However, I would go on to explain some incidences where it might be safe practice to wear gloves when dealing with IV lines (like when drawing blood, etc).

[SL2014]

I almost always wear gloves when I'm doing anything... The ONE time I didn't wear gloves to flush a line the patients family complained and I got crucified for it. In my head I'm thinking "there are studies that show that gloves are dirtier than hands that have been washed" (which I DID wash) and the family said "why aren't you wearing gloves?" And my reply was that they are for our protection not the protection of the patient. But like I said - I got crucified for it. My manager informed me that I had no awareness and no regard for infection control.:.

[krisiepoo]

I don't wear gloves when doing IV meds (caveat, I've never done Chemo drugs and might then just because they're so erosive)

[RunBabyRN]

I don't wear them for hanging or changing bags, but I do for IVP. We really weren't instructed either way with it, but I feel better about it.

[ambitiousBSN]

I wear gloves no matter what I'm doing. As we're taught, consider everything and everyone contaminated.

[Dranger]

If I am messing with a port, central line or cleaning an IV site I will wear gloves.

Hanging bags or giving IVP? Lol no just gel in and gel out