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?

[wooh, BSN, RN]

So you KNOW your hands are clean after you use alcohol-based hand sanitizer?? Well did you KNOW that C-Diff is not affected by alcohol-based hand sanitizer, so your "clean" hands may be spreading one of the most prolific nosocomial infections around??

Did you KNOW that after being in room on c. diff precautions, I wash them with soap and water. Rather than just spread the spores onto clean gloves when I dig around in the box and then use those spore covered gloves.

[mgp6]

I wear gloves as soon as I wash my hands when I enter a patient's room. Just don't want to touch other people's belongings or side tables, IV pumps, etc. without protecting myself.

[hiddencatRN, BSN, RN]

So you KNOW your hands are clean after you use alcohol-based hand sanitizer?? Well did you KNOW that C-Diff is not affected by alcohol-based hand sanitizer, so your "clean" hands may be spreading one of the most prolific nosocomial infections around??

Did you READ that wooh wrote "washed my hands OR used sanitizer"? Wooh demonstrates awareness of TWO modes of hand hygiene. TWO. So how do you KNOW she doesn't know to sudse with soap and water for C. diff?

[Do-over, ASN, RN]

I follow universal precautions. I do not believe this requires gloves every time I touch a patient or devices on that patient. I am also aware of my hands and work hard to keep my skin intact.

By the time I am ready to push an IV med, I've already had my (clean) hands all over the syringe and cap (not the luer-lock (sp?), of course). After I scrub the hub, I don't let that hub touch anything (my hands, the bed, the patient, etc) until I screw the luer-lock syringe into it. Oh, I've also set the syringe down on the bed or table while I figure out where my push-line is, paused whatever, and scrubbed.

I get the feeling that some folks might freak-out if they ever come in contact with blood, feces, urine, etc. Our skin protects us, and if something touches intact skin you just need to wash it off.

[MunoRN, RN]

Even after hand washing, your hands still aren't really all that clean, just cleaner than before washing them. Gloves help prevent spreading bacteria from one patient to another via healthcare staff.

From the CDC, non-sterile exam gloves...

"Reduce the risk of personnel acquiring infections from patients

Prevent healthcare flora from being transmitted to patients

Reduce transient contamination of the hands of personnel by flora that can be transmitted from one patient to another."

[DedHedRN]

I wear gloves when messing with IVs only because I am afraid that some medication will get on my skin and soak in.

[wooh, BSN, RN]

Even after hand washing, your hands still aren't really all that clean, just cleaner than before washing them. Gloves help prevent spreading bacteria from one patient to another via healthcare staff.

From the CDC, non-sterile exam gloves...

"Reduce the risk of personnel acquiring infections from patients

Prevent healthcare flora from being transmitted to patients

Reduce transient contamination of the hands of personnel by flora that can be transmitted from one patient to another."

Ok, I've searched the CDC, cannot find anything advocating the wearing of non-sterile gloves for anything other than protection of the healthcare provider. Please direct me. (I'd just like to see it in context.) Plenty of cites for hygiene before and after gloves because of the moist environment that the gloves create turning our hands into petri dishes while we're wearing them.

If you're concerned about the bacteria on exam gloves you can gel or even wash with the gloves on.

I did find explicit directions to NOT do that, as it can cause microperforations in the gloves.

[lub dub]

Scott's response was to the OP's question about giving IV meds through an already established IV site -- not starting an IV.

I know what he said. Regardless of the situation, gloves protect the patient from the potentially germy nurse.

[Nursey103, ADN, RN]

I also believe in universal precautions....those that wear gloves for everything because wearing gloves is still cleaner than your clean hands.....do you also wear gloves when eating?! I mean...imagine those filthy hands touching your food....

[MunoRN, RN]

I also believe in universal precautions....those that wear gloves for everything because wearing gloves is still cleaner than your clean hands.....do you also wear gloves when eating?! I mean...imagine those filthy hands touching your food....

I really hope you understand the difference between getting bacteria in your stomach, which for most bacteria poses absolutely no risk, and getting bacteria in a central line.

[MunoRN, RN]

Ok, I've searched the CDC, cannot find anything advocating the wearing of non-sterile gloves for anything other than protection of the healthcare provider. Please direct me. (I'd just like to see it in context.) Plenty of cites for hygiene before and after gloves because of the moist environment that the gloves create turning our hands into petri dishes while we're wearing them.

Slide 36

http://www.cdc.gov/handhygiene/download/hand_hygiene_supplement.pdf

We don't wear gloves in contact precautions for instance to protect the provider, we wear them limit the chances staff will become a vector for contaminating other patients.

Unlike contact precautions where gloves should be worn for any contact with "the patient's environment", gloves don't need to be worn for everything when a patient isn't on contact precautions. But steps should be taken to minimize the chances of picking up bacteria from a patient, as well as transmitting already picked up bacteria to another patient in situations that pose a particularly high risk for bacterial transmission, such as potentially coming into contact with fluids or surfaces that enter a line, particularly a central line.

I did find explicit directions to NOT do that, as it can cause microperforations in the gloves.

There are some hand sanitizers out there that are not latex or nitrile compatible, though every one I can find used in patient care is labelled as "nitrile compatible". I personally don't gel my gloves, though if someone has the misunderstanding that exam gloves, while dirty, all dirtier than hands then that is an option.

[Altra, BSN, RN]

So you KNOW your hands are clean after you use alcohol-based hand sanitizer?? Well did you KNOW that C-Diff is not affected by alcohol-based hand sanitizer, so your "clean" hands may be spreading one of the most prolific nosocomial infections around??

Seriously? You concluded that the poster you quoted doesn't know that?