New Nurse Completely Surprised!!!

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Hello All,

New to allnurses, and just wanted to get some opinions. I am a new nurse (LPN), started my first week at a long term care facility. I have observed many nurses not wearing gloves while doing patient care. The nurses and aides were not wearing gloves when taking residents to the bathroom, and when drawing blood, and fingersticks. Just wondering if this was the norm where any of you work?? :confused:

Patient are so educated these days, and they watch you doing procedures. Sometimes I go in a room the patient maybe a nurse or retired doctor, patient expect us to wear gloves and them don't mind it. The main thing is when it comes to washing hands and wearing gloves you get pretend that you have OCD and washing and wear as much as possible.

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Specializes in ICU,ER,med-Surg,Geri,Correctional.

The great thing about our patients and families being more educated now these days is that they will be able to make the changes to nursing that we can't. Lord knows we have tried for years to make changes in our profession with very little voice. However with the this being such a customer driven business (not patient) but a business that tries to draw in the public with fancy ads and propaganda. I love it when a pt or family asks me" how many other patients are you taking care of? I can not and will not lie. The public is not stupid they know about nurse pt ratios and soon with the latest reports and results found on medscape the national media will be addressing these situations. oh I'm sorry this was met to be about "To glove or not to glove"

yes: lamarblack-our pts are getting smarter and I'm glad..

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The gloves and sanitizing foam routine is actually a lot more recent than many people realize. My only real difficulty would be palpating for a vein, but I guess you get used to it after a while.

I have eczema on my hands, and wear gloves infrequently- as little as I can get away with! I do wear them for personal care, clean procedures, etc (and the sterile gloves seem to have less of an effect on me). When I take blood, I palpate for a vein, find one, then put the gloves on and clean the area, then take the blood. Makes it much easier.

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Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.
I have eczema on my hands, and wear gloves infrequently- as little as I can get away with! I do wear them for personal care, clean procedures, etc (and the sterile gloves seem to have less of an effect on me). When I take blood, I palpate for a vein, find one, then put the gloves on and clean the area, then take the blood. Makes it much easier.

I am going to have to do that! I find vinyl gloves less irritating, but ours fit like grocery sacks compared to the latex, which, if my hands perspire at all, react with the latex to form a substance so toxic I can actually feel my skin start to itch and burn, ack!!

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I am going to have to do that! I find vinyl gloves less irritating, but ours fit like grocery sacks compared to the latex, which, if my hands perspire at all, react with the latex to form a substance so toxic I can actually feel my skin start to itch and burn, ack!!

Ours are not latex, but the Occupational Health people gave me nitrate gloves, which do not irritate me nearly as much, unless I leave them on for long periods of time.

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Specializes in ER.

When doing patient care gloves are a must! Right now in Michigan at one facility there is an outbreak of Acinetobacter, it has killed a few patients so far. We have a quarantine section of our hospital to care for the inpatient crowd that is infected. Being from the ER, we have no Idea what people have when they arrive. Gloves protect us and the next patient from getting sick. In the nursing homes it is imperative that gloves be worn. Pneumonia and influenza spread by contact from one patient to another mostly from the CNA's who don't wash their hands or wear gloves. This is a great health risk and should be reported to management. Don't risk your patients life by not protecting them!:nurse:

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Specializes in ER.
You should probably get used to seeing it. Waaaaaaay back when, during CNA clinicals at a local nursing home, my fellow students and I were stunned to see that no gloves were to be found anywhere. All the CNA's did everything, including butt-wiping, gloveless. We had been taught to always use gloves so of course, we asked about the gloves. We discovered the gloves were kept in a locked closet at the end of the hall. The CNA's looked at us with near-hatred and told us that you can't get a d**n thing done with gloves. The only butts I'm wiping glove-less are my own, my kids, and my hubby!

The next nursing home was mixed. Some aides wore gloves and most didn't. The glove-less ones were usually older.

The real shocker to us spring chickens was when we went to an ICU in the hospital to observe an AIDS patient who was near death. While there, we observed the CNA and the ICU nurse cleaning the woman's behind.... without gloves.

I retook CNA recently in preparation for nursing school admission. The instructor of this class was an older woman, has been a nurse for 40+ years. I can't tell you how many times she reiterated to us that "in my opinion, gloves are used way too much and aren't necessary."

Now, I am working in an assisted living facility and we never have gloves. Fortunately for me, I have some left over from my previous job. I'm not sure what will happen when they run out. I'm just not willing to put ointment in eyes infected with MRSA. I'm just not. I'm also not willing to clean any behinds glove-less. Our residents are mostly self-sufficient but they have their moments...

You can demand that the facility supply you with the proper materials needed or you can go to the accrediting agency with the information. (you can also buy them at the pharmacy).:nurse:

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Specializes in Geri-psych Nursing.

I work at a long term care facility, and I do not wear gloves as often as I did working at a hospital because I know the residents and know what infections and sores they currently have. In the hospital, every day was a new day, and assessing a new patient, I never knew for sure what I would find. Still, I always wear gloves when taking Accu Checks or changing dressings. If you've ever worked a flu clinic, you will see that gloves don't offer all that much more protection than using hand sanitizer for giving injections. I like the way they put it to me as a student: If it's wet and it's not yours, wear gloves.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Long Term Care.
I work at a long term care facility, and I do not wear gloves as often as I did working at a hospital because I know the residents and know what infections and sores they currently have. In the hospital, every day was a new day, and assessing a new patient, I never knew for sure what I would find. Still, I always wear gloves when taking Accu Checks or changing dressings. If you've ever worked a flu clinic, you will see that gloves don't offer all that much more protection than using hand sanitizer for giving injections. I like the way they put it to me as a student: If it's wet and it's not yours, wear gloves.

I'm an RN Supervisor in an LTC facility, and its important to remember that even though you know your residents, they can get a new infection or outbreak at any time. It would be a shame to spread MRSA, not to mention the State isn't too keen on it either. Unfortunately, this scenario is currently going on at my facility. Protect yourself, your resident, your other residents, and your family... wear the gloves.

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When I worked as a CNA I seen all sorts of stuff like that. It always grossed me out! I wore gloves during practically everything! I guess I'm just a big germ freak, lol. Don't let others think you're doing something wrong by protecting yourself.....behold the power of the glove!! :)

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Specializes in Cardiac/Tele/CVICU.
Dear "New" Nurse,

I don't think that you are crazy for wanting to protect yourself and your patients, however, some of those "older" nurses and CNA's were probably around when there were not any gloves to be used. It shouldn't be common practice, but there are those times when there is an unexpected moment or a Patient needs something now and not 2 mins after I get gloves and put them on. You should use your judgement with each situation. Should you use gloves, Certainly, without a doubt. However, I would like to hear from you in about 2 years to see if you do and feel the same way. Just curiosity. You will weigh your moments and your time.

I haven't been a nurse for 2 years, but I have been for about a year... I still don gloves every time I give patient care. It's the protocol for my busy CVICU stepdown unit, and it has never taken me 2 minutes to put on gloves. More like 10 seconds, at the very most, more like 5. The only time I could see myself not taking the time is if I found my patient falling or about to fall.

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Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.

Gloves and HIPAA, the subject matter that seems to get people all prickly these days. If someone has to go out in the hall to find gloves to put on to hand someone a water bottle- I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that facility's rates of nosocomial infections are not going to spike way up compared to the facility down the street who is the same in every way, but the nurse just hands the patient their water.

If you take a real close look at "gloving" practices, you will see things like gloves on an aide who wears them from one patient to the next without putting clean ones on. That's worse than no gloves and proper handwashing technique. I watched a lab tech draw blood on one patient and go to draw my 6 week old son's blood with the same gloves on, with visible blood on the glove fingers.

I wear gloves most of the time, too, but the strict gloves=clean hands=dirty is a little more complex than that. Infections contracted in hospitals and LTCs are more rampant and virulent than ever before. Setting aside the argument about overuse of antibiotics- this stuff is going from person to person somehow.

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