Honestly: Do you wear gloves every time?

[BeachNurse]

Taking a little poll here. I am work in I.D. and one of our co-workers was recently hospitalized. She said not ONE of the people who drew blood from her, etc. wore gloves. The guy who drew a blood gas held his bare hand over the site where he drew from while it was still oozing blood. From the ER to the floor-NObody wore gloves. This is in a "highly respected hospital". We were apalled. Then again, we work with patients who have HIV and Hep B & C, but still! Any thoughts?

[bigjay]

Originally posted by P_RN:

All I can say is YES! Every stinking time!!!

And pardon my French, but if you can't start an IV with gloves on....PRACTICE and LEARN to do it!!!!! A little convenience is NO trade-off for your LIFE!!!!!!!!!!!

And if YOU are the patient, or the nurse that sees someone NOT USING GLOVES, REFUSE the stick!! REPORT the incident!!!

They have NO RIGHT to risk your health and your life like that.

Whoa, lots of caps... like many things in nursing, you need to practice judgement using scientific rationale. It doesn't make sense to glove for every little thing. You need to assess what you are going to do with the patient and the likelyhood of coming into contact with bodily fluids. I usually err on the side of caution myself but I agree with the above posters that I don't usually glove to do an IV start.

Realistically, your blood exposure when doing a start is fairly minimal. Gloves won't protect you from a needle stick as someone said, so you're only going to contact blood from a missed start (when withdrawing the canula) or from the canula when you get flowback. With the missed start, I'll put on gloves and have a gauze ready before I withdraw the needle. For flowback, I can usually get the line attached before the blood flows out.

I wear gloves pretty much every time I do any direct patient care (changing, lifting, bathing, etc) because as one of the previous posters said, you never know with total care patients when body fluids may be present.

As for reporting people who don't wear gloves, each individual DOES have the right to endanger themselves. That's their choice. I will educate and inform them on the risks they are taking, but if it is only a risk to themselves reporting them is hardly going to help them. People DO NOT have the right to put patients or others at risk. If non-gloving were an issue there, I'd report them immediately.

[MollyJ]

Every time.

My conversion came in the early 90's when a young man came in to the ED where I was working with a cut from the day before that was persistently bleeding. As I held pressure on his wound with my gloved hands, I asked him his meds. He started naming the AIDS drugs du jour. He was HIV positive. I realized that I didn't always wear gloves but I was mightly glad I had done so that day and I realized that, like universal precautions stated, I needed to do it everytime.

Regarding posters who said that they sacrifice their own safety to give the patient a clean IV stick: We often had to contend with gloves that fit as well as the gloves worn by the lunch ladies who handed out dinner rolls at my old grade school. This is unacceptable and you need to take it up with your infection control personnel BUT until they respond, here is what I did. I used sterile surgical gloves that were size specific. I am sure that people who know the cost of supplies are gasping--but tough. I came to realize that if surgeons did vascular surgery with gloves on (and they do--sometimes two pairs) then I could accomplish venipuncture with a WELL FITTED glove. For myself and my patient, I demand a well fitted glove. IF the non-sterile gloves on the shelf fit well enough, I will use them. If not, I pull a pair of size specific sterile gloves and use them.

Starting IV's, even with a well fitted glove, brings to mind men's coments about condoms but like that same act, venipuncture can be accomplished under those circumstances.

Don't forget to wear your raincoat!!

[fiestynurse]

I was told that wearing gloves does offer you some protection from a needle stick, by acting as a squeegee, wiping the blood off the surface of the needle as it goes in. That made sense to me, so I always wear gloves for IV starts. I have seen many people do that weird thing, where they rip a finger of the glove off and use that ungloved finger to feel for the vein. What do you think?

[JillR]

I have to admit that I do not wear glove on all occasions. I usually don't wear them when I put in IV's. I asked one of out lab techs once about the fact that she rarely wore gloves when she did her blood draws and she told me that the lab supervisor told them that gloves are optional because drawing blood is a closed system. However she goes gloveless on her dominent hand and wears a glove on her non-dominent hand just in case she has to hold pressure on a bleeder.

[ June 04, 2001: Message edited by: JillR ]

[CEN35]

Everytime!!!!!!!!!!!! and Double glove for ALL Foleys and NG's!!!!!

me

[EndoRN]

Well....I work in the GI lab, so YUP! Wear gloves ALL the time! No poo-poo under these nails, thank you very much!

[nurs4kids]

Originally posted by CEN35:

Everytime!!!!!!!!!!!! and Double glove for ALL Foleys and NG's!!!!!

me

Rick,

Pardon my ignorance..

why would you double glove for foley's and ng's???

[prmenrs, RN]

Just like voting in Chicago (or so I've been told) "early and often" for that glove thing!! I used to do Infection Control, too; gloves rule! Get a glove that fits for the IV's--if I can start an IV on a 500gm premie w/gloves on, it CAN be done!!

[P_RN, ADN, RN]

An addendum: OSHA in the US and OSH in Canada both have mandated Universal/Standard Precautions for use of gloves in phlebotomy.

Bigjay I'm sorry if you don't feel that your life is worth it. I do. And congrats to the premie nurse......500G you go !!!

P

[Nursz-R-Awsm]

Feisty, I learned the technique you mentioned from a nurse who tore the index finger off of the dominant hand. I guess the non-dominant one would be most at risk for a stick. I tear the finger off when I don't have gloves that fit...I wear small of course.

[CashewLPN, LPN]

Hmm... when do I wear gloves... most of the time... Not always, but it depends on what I'm doing... If I'm looking for a vein, I dont wear gloves... I wear 7 1/2's and all the kits we get are packed with 7's... VINYL 7's... so, For things where a well fitted glove is necessary, I do grab from the supply of 7 1/2's...

For patient care, i grab from the good ol box of Med's on the walls... they tend to run a little big, so its cool... the large gloves are so big that they look like clown gloves on me..

I never double glove though... if its going through 1 glove, its sure as hell going through 2 or 3... unless I find something with a touch of kevlar lining, I'm not gonna double glove... Turns out that germs multiply faster within a double glove than a single glove anyway.... Nasty.

for the actual doings, gloves all the way.

--Barbara

[Chuckie]

Yes,