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Discussion

Question on giving a full bed bath

In lecture, we were told to not wear gloves when we perform bed baths unless coming into contact with bodily fluids or feces, or open wounds. So basically no gloves giving the bed bath until we are about to give perineal care/change the brief. The reason being that it makes the patient feel like something is wrong with them and you don't want to touch them. And they say you don't wear gloves when you wash yourself, so why would you need to for someone else (assuming they have no open wounds, infectious diseases, giving perineal care, etc.)

Well, last week was my first start in clinicals in a long term nursing home. My partner and I had no issues at all with anything including the bed bath; we did not use gloves when giving the bed bath until we did perineal care (patient had no additional issues to worry about).

This week however, I have a new patient and a new partner. Anyway, the gist is my instructor decided to critique my new partner and I today on almost everything we did (correct and non-correct). Probably because even though I was knowledgable in what we were supposed to be doing, my new partner was not and my instructor knew. Don't get me wrong, if I am doing something wrong then please correct me, but if I'm doing something right, I don't see the reason to find some way to criticize.

Anyway, one of the things she criticized me on was what I had done with my gloves because she had seen me grab some earlier. And I explained I had my gloves on my person, but I had only just finished washing her upper body so I was waiting to put them on for perineal care and the conversation went on from there.

My question is, as a nursing student, what is the correct way? To wear gloves the whole time or only in cases of contact with open wound, perineal care, etc.? Because hearing two different things is confusing and now I don't know what the right way is. I want to do this correct and I don't want to continue to be critiqued over something because I can't get the right information. Do I follow what I learned in lecture or what my particular nurse instructor wants?

Edit- I just realized I posted in wrong thread area, opps!

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    • Featured Replies

    • Expert

    While in school, you should follow your instructors' instructions (as long as no harm would come to you or your pt in doing so). I always wear gloves for the entire bath, however.

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    I would wear gloves.

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    Every time I've done a full bed bath, I have worn gloves. My instructor was present on multiple occasions, and never raised any issues.

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    Wow. We are pretty much taught to wear gloves any time we touch a patient. I work in the hospital as a nurse extern and have never ever seen a CNA or RN give a bath and not wear gloves. Even changing linens we are taught to wear gloves and keep the linens away from our body when placing them in a bin. Never heard of it, but who knows??? I'd love to hear some more responses because this kind of blows my mind!

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    By the way - I just asked the 3 nurses around me at work and each of them looked at me in shock and said "What school is that??!!" One even said "I would quit!" LOL I'm not saying to go that far. Maybe looking at some medical/nursing journals about not wearing gloves?

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    • Author

    Thanks everyone for the quick replies. I'm gonna make sure to wear them for now evertime I give a bath now. I would rather wear them than not anyway so it's good to know.

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    Yes we wear gloves during bedbaths!!!

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    • Expert

    As a student I would do whatever the instructor wanted.In real life, I only don gloves for the peri area.

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    AHHH. ::CRINGE::

    I ALWAYS wear gloves. I worked as a CNA/PCT before and had a co-worker who only wore gloves for peri-area care, well that patient had MRSA and wasn't on contact precautions at the time - a week later our entire side of the unit was positive for MRSA. Not so good for our compromised patients and our patients with wounds!!!

    This same co-worker also gave C-Diff to one of my patients because she said she "forgot" to wear gloves when giving the previous patient a bath. Um, yeah right, you just don't want to wear gloves and kill people. (I say that because the patient was on death's door, recovered, and THEN contracted C-Diff, and died from vagal stimulation, so sad!)

    Point of the story, you never know what a patient may have crawling around their skin. I also always consider linen dirty, so I wear gloves to make sure I am not picking up any strange things.

    I understand not wanting to make the patient feel distant from me, which is why I give a massage, and wash their hands thoroughly, so I can sit and hold their hands afterwards and tell them what a pleasure it was to be involved in their care. I've had patients cry just because I took the time to put some lotion on their back and massage their shoulders. Sometimes laying in that bed can be so incredibly uncomfortable. It's not what you wear, it's the fact that you are actually providing care!

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    • Guides

    The only time I don't wear gloves is when I'm visiting with residents, holding their hands, hugging them and so on. Everything else requires gloves.......and I can't even imagine washing a patient bare-handed. {{{{shudder}}}} :wideyed:

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    Have you ever tried to put gloves on with wet hands?!?!

    I wear gloves for the whole thing and no one thinks a thing of it. There are tons of germs that are going around and sometimes the patients can have a lot of funk. That funk can be hard to wash off! I'm talking funk like the heavy sweaters, skin flakes, rashes and general grime. The patient doesn't even think about what areas you are wearing the gloves for, they just want to get clean before the water gets cold!

    At least if you err with gloves, it's on the side of caution.

    For school though, keep your head down, do it precisely how you are taught and remember practicality for the real world.

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