IV push and wearing gloves

[Katniss88]

In nursing school they taught us to wear gloves while doing IV pushes or hooking up IV tubing to a patient. I just graduated in May and just recently started working as a nurse. While observing my preceptors I have seen that neither of them used gloves. I decided to ask why they didn't use gloves and I was told that since you aren't coming into contact with blood then it's not necessary. One of the nurses there graduated from the same nursing program I did and she also said she didn't use gloves. Does anyone still use gloves or is it just something instructors make you do while in nursing school?

[KelRN215, BSN, RN]

All the meds I push these days are chemo so I wear gloves. But in the hospital, did I wear gloves every time I flushed an IV or hooked up fluids? No.

[KittyLovinRN]

I've gotta be honest, I (think -- one can never be 100% sure I'm aware) always use gloves. I just always try to remember that if it were me or one of my family members in that bed I'd want the nurse to be wearing gloves.

Be a rebel, wear gloves. Nobody can fault you for it.

[Katniss88]

At this point in my career I have a hard time straying from the way I was taught in nursing school. I believe they taught us that for a reason. A lot of times I have seen blood in the tubing even after I just flushed it.

[AgentBeast, MSN, RN]

I've gotta be honest, I (think -- one can never be 100% sure I'm aware) always use gloves. I just always try to remember that if it were me or one of my family members in that bed I'd want the nurse to be wearing gloves.

Be a rebel, wear gloves. Nobody can fault you for it.

FYI the gloves do nothing to protect the patient. The gloves protect the nurse from whatever the patient may be harboring. When protecting the patient from something sterile gloves and sterile technique are used. Think about it, how clean is a box of gloves on a counter that everyone puts their hands in to pull out a couple gloves from?

[CodeteamB]

I just always try to remember that if it were me or one of my family members in that bed I'd want the nurse to be wearing gloves.

Why? Have you seen the studies on what they culture off clean gloves? Your patient is far more protected in this case by you maintaining good hand hygiene.

[wooh, BSN, RN]

Only time I wear gloves with an IV is if I'm starting it, I'm putting it back together (kids love to pull the end off so blood comes out), or if I'm drawing blood off of a central line. I also used to do it when I worked my days in a row, and the chlorhexadine wipes would irritate my hands. Otherwise, I use hand hygiene. I know what's on my hands. I don't know what's on gloves I pulled out of a box in a patient room.

The patient/family doesn't know that the toddler that was in the room before them pulled all of the gloves out of the box and threw them on the floor, and the mom, to avoid embarrassment, put them all back in the box. Or that the person that replaced all the boxes and tore the opening out of them didn't wash their hands after using the bathroom. I don't either. But I know that I just washed my hands or used sanitizer. If they'd prefer the unknown-how-dirty gloves to that, it's their choice, but when I have a choice, I'm going with what I KNOW is clean.

[s0ad]

I wear gloves if I'm spiking antibiotics or meds (well, usually, sometimes I forgot) because I've had some leak on me and it freaks me out. I don't typically wear gloves during pushes because who would I be protecting? I always wear gloves while pulling/starting IVs, hanging blood, albumin, platelets, etc, and drawing blood.

[hiddencatRN, BSN, RN]

I never wear gloves for IV pushes. The only reason to do so is if you're going to possibly come in contact with body fluid or if the substance you're pushing is one you should not have on your skin.

[Stella_Blue]

Im in school and my teacher didn't have me wear gloves in my IV push the other day. I guess I didn't even see a need to since I did not come into contact with anything. As long as I cleaned the IV port and nothing else touched it, I think it should be fine.

[MunoRN, RN]

Gloves aren't just to protect you from exposure, they do serve a purpose in spreading bacteria from one patient to another since a Nurse's hands, even after hand hygiene, carry the bacteria of other patients you've been caring for. Wearing gloves helps in two ways; it reduces the amount of bacteria you might pick up from another patient, while also reducing the transmission potential to other patients.

Exam gloves aren't sterile, but they are cleaner than your "clean" hands are. There are some studies that show show exam gloves become dirtier as more gloves have been taken out of the box, but compared to the bacterial loads found on "clean" hands they are still cleaner. If you're concerned about the bacteria on exam gloves you can gel or even wash with the gloves on.

[SubSippi]

I wear gloves for pretty much everything, even though I know it's not always necessary. My reasoning is that if, for instance, the patient saw another nurse wearing gloves to push IV meds, and then the next day they see me NOT wearing gloves to do it, they probably will think I'm not being sanitary, not that the other nurse is just being overly cautious. Also, it can't hurt anything. Not putting on gloves couldn't possibly be saving that much time.