How to help gloves fit...info request

[*Pepper*]

Hi,

The facility I have started at only has Medium no powder non latex gloves available. I have asked for large, but they do not stock them. A bit far from school where they had every size to use.

Sometime medium fits, but usually not when I need to get them on fast or want to double glove. Either my hands swell, sweat, get wet or whatever.

I have also run into this during clinicals for school where the floor only has small or medium.

Anyone have hints? A dumb question but very important!

Thanks much,

[Gompers, BSN, RN]

The only thing I can think of is to buy your own large gloves and keep them in your bag or locker. Fill your pockets or a pack with them to carry a stash with you all day long. If you're in school, you will have to buy these yourself. But if you're at work and the hospital really doesn't have ANY large gloves, approach your nurse manager about the possibility of reimbursing you for buying your own gloves. But check around first - sometimes some units only get certain gloves on a regular basis, but others are available within the facility that you can have the secretary order for you.

Just make sure that whatever gloves you order are acceptable within the unit - most preferably the same style and brand that they stock now, just in a larger size. There are many medical supply companies with catalogs and websites that can help you find what you need.

Good luck!

[gauge14iv, MSN, APRN, NP]

As a student you are sort of stuck and like Gompers said - carrying your own is going to be the way to go. However on the job it is a different story. OSHA requires that the employer provide personal protection equipment. This is a federal regulation. Just have your manager order some large gloves.

[Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN]

Since smalls and mediums are typically used on the floors, that's all that's usually found in the rooms. Your faciliy might have larges, but they might be where the extra gloves are stored in a cabinet or closet somewhere. You'd probably have to take the box of gloves with you to whatever room you go to next.

[EricJRN, MSN, RN]

As a student you are sort of stuck and like Gompers said - carrying your own is going to be the way to go. However on the job it is a different story. OSHA requires that the employer provide personal protection equipment. This is a federal regulation. Just have your manager order some large gloves.

:yeahthat: If your facility is not willing to order gloves that fit, I think you've probably got bigger problems at that place than just PPE.

[*Pepper*]

Thanks for the feedback.

Apparently I had talked to the wrong person initially, and the facility has told me that the issue will be resolved.

For my own protection I will always make sure I have my size on me.

Since the gloves are solved (thanks y'all) I need to find scrubs I can put in the pockets 10 washclothes, 4 towels, a bath blanket and a few pullups of each size.....oh and when fully stocked the scrubs need to make look 10 pounds thinner and walk 14 miles an hour.....:roll

[Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN]

Since the gloves are solved (thanks y'all) I need to find scrubs I can put in the pockets 10 washclothes, 4 towels, a bath blanket and a few pullups of each size.....oh and when fully stocked the scrubs need to make look 10 pounds thinner and walk 14 miles an hour.....

Think you might have to get a Radio Flyer wagon for the supplies lol.

One place i worked at, we had 'mini' linen carts, that we could stock from the big cart. We could park this outside of the resident's door that we were in. We could stock that cart as we liked (i kept briefs, new tubes of barrier cream in case i came to a room where there wasn't a tube, extra of the small trash bags, Purell, box o' gloves, and the necessary linen stuff). The only rule was that your cart had to be empty before you left (so that the next shift could stock it as they liked for themselves).