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?

[Q.]

Originally posted by nurs4kids:

Rick,

Pardon my ignorance..

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

Ok, I thought I was the only one who is missing something. Why the double gloving for foleys? Makes me feel like there is something I should know.... :)

[joannep]

G'day, I spent 15 years working in theatre before changing to working in haemodialysis. I always wear gloves in any patient care situation, in fact I feel naked without them on.

[night owl]

How about when you're passing meds? I, myself do not, but I work with people who do. It just seems like a pain in the orifice to put em on, take em off, put em on, take them off for 20+ residents. Well, maybe it's better to be safe. We have one 46 y/o res. with HIV and I of course would wear them when giving him his meds. What do you do?

[Genista, BSN, RN]

Anytime I think I am going to come into contact with blood or body fluids, you bet I am wearing gloves. I ALWAYS wear gloves for IV starts.Always, always, always!!! I can feel for that vein just fine with gloves on; the secret is to wear snug gloves that fit.

[Mijourney]

Hi. Yes, after a short, shaky start, I'm compulsive with the wearing of gloves.

[JMP]

The phrase "universal precautons" ring a bell with anyone?

You and I should wear gloves when there is a risk of coming into contact with body fluids.

Certainly universal precautions are not necessary when passing out meds. That is just wrong.......I mean what do they think might happen?

I agree with some of the posts regarding IV starts....the manual dexterity is just not as good with gloves......but I have had too much blood flowing down someone's arm to risk not using gloves....again UNIVERSAL PRECAUTIONS.

[ornurse2001]

OK-I wear gloves for most everything, but I cannot feel veins with a glove on and to practice trying that on real people's veins seems mean to the patient since everytime I have tried I end up sticking more than once.I have gotten wearing a glove on one hand and feeling with the other hand down to a fine art and seldom if ever come in contact with blood when starting an IV.I wear gloves for everything else.I will say to the double glovers that I seldom ever double glove and I work in surgery, often in the scrub role.None of the Surgeons I've worked with double glove either; however, I would bet that our surgical quality gloves are a bit more durable than the average non-sterile gloves.I have also found it difficult to double glove in surgery because of the bulk.You come to appreciate a comfortable surgical glove and in fact get quite "picky" about glove comfort when you scrub alot-at least I do.(I know-shame shame)

[puzzler]

Yep--every time. Esp. with IV's. If I have a problem finding a vein I will take the glove off, locate a vein, then reglove for the stick.

As a side note-- I remember when we would have precipitate deliveries and deliver bare handed--Lordy--can you believe we ever did that? Not today, never, never. Also remember using the mouth suction meconium aspirators to suction below the cords of newborns. It is a wonder I am still here and healthy I guess. But you know what they used to say--God takes care of fools and babies and nurses get double duty

Hope you all have a great week-end :)

[Q.]

I had to comment about the precipitous deliveries.....I've had more than my fair share...and yes, having gloves is nice in an ideal situation...typically I try to carry a clean pair in my pocket - however, when someone's emergency light goes off, and you run into the room and the baby is on the perineum and she needs support, etc....you do what you have to. I've tried to support the head with the buttom of the chux - but sometimes that just quite doesn't do it. Even though we aren't OBs - we like to deliver the babies to reduce the risk of tearing "upwards" if you know what I mean!

Luckily we don't meconium aspirate with our mouths anymore!!! Yikes!

[denicke]

I also double glove for Foleys...after insertion and the balloon is inflated, I remove the sterile gloves (contaminated with Lord knows what!) and have a "clean" pair of gloves to handle urine specimen cup with. The cup then stays relatively free of whatever. I glove for everything, since starting an IV on a 2 y/o (you know how messy pedi IV's can be) only to find out later from the child's aunt "I think she's been dx'd with HIV" I do at times, however, cut off the tip of my left (non dominant) index finger to palpate a vein. Stay safe everyone!

[timonrn]

I 99% of the time wear gloves for IM's and SQ's but the one time I didn't for an IM the patient bled like the dickens and the little alcohol pad I had didn't quite do it! LOL Why the gloves with meds, tho--I'm not actually touching anything of the pts when I hand them their meds--??

[Chuckie]

What