Question on skin to skin touching

merlee · Jul 2, 2012

Like I said before, where does it end? Will we start wearing gloves when we go to a party - imagine not shaking hands with someone just because they are a stranger?? We go to restaurants where a variety of people have handled the food and all the dishes and flatware.

Just because someone is in a hospital or clinic does not make them more dirty than your next-door neighbor!

If I am being seen for my high BP and heart issues, I appear to be recently bathed, my clothes are neat and clean then why do the nurses and aides wear gloves? The docs sure don't! And, I have asked people to clean off their stethoscopes before they touch me with it.

Ask your Infection Control people to swab your scope - the head and the earpieces - and then see what you are handling and wearing next to your face.

I guess my hackles are up with this topic!!

Elvish, BSN, DNP, RN, NP · Jul 2, 2012

Yeah, there have (if I recall correctly) been studies done about how many bugs are being carried on stethoscopes that go in and out of rooms. The results were/are kind of scary, when you consider how we gown and glove for a pt that we know is buggy but lay our steth just about anywhere.

http://www.jfponline.com/Pages.asp?AID=7762

http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2010/06/07/bisc0607.htm

That Guy, BSN, RN, EMT-B · Jul 2, 2012

It is a miracle I am not dead yet with as many times I have touched a pt with *gasp* bare hands! Good thing I dip them in lava to burn all the nasty off them before I leave each day. :uhoh3:

JZ_RN · Jul 2, 2012

Considering that most of those patients do not get a shower or bath daily (And I'm sorry, a bedbath is not enough) and that especially elderly/confused patients often have all kinds of things on their hands/under the fingernails, that most people rarely wash their hands, that children are not taught to wash their hands, I'll wear gloves. I don't know if those people have scabies or MRSA or who knows what. And with all the people I see who just pick their noses or stick their hands down their pants without a thought...

I realize that gloves aren't impermeable and that lots of things I touch in my daily life are germ-infested, including everything in my home, however, sick people in hospitals are no more likely to give you germs than a shopping cart? THEY ARE SICK. Many of them are there for horrible infections. Why take any extra chances. They don't want my germs, I certainly don't want theirs.

GLOVE UP.

NayRN · Jul 2, 2012

shopping carts. high chairs at restaurants. public bathrooms. stair handrails. keyboards, phones, and mouse at work. patients. all = standard precaution which equates good handwashing. 5 second rule? chances are that the skittle that your kid dropped on the floor and picked up and ate isn't going to hurt them. Don't lick your fingers after touching a patient, don't eat, don't touch another one, until you wash your hands. Your body does amazing things as far as immunity goes. Trust it. it's ok.

JZ_RN · Jul 2, 2012

Germs or no germs, I still don't want anyone else's non-visible but present feces, urine, mucous/boogers, sneezes, genital secretions, snot, etc., touching me if I can help it. I work with a ton of strangers and if there's one less nasty thing I have to touch, then I'll wear gloves.

Double-Helix, BSN, RN · Jul 2, 2012

Germs or no germs, I still don't want anyone else's non-visible but present feces, urine, mucous/boogers, sneezes, genital secretions, snot, etc., touching me if I can help it. I work with a ton of strangers and if there's one less nasty thing I have to touch, then I'll wear gloves.

Not to be redundant, but you do realize that all of those things are present on routine, everyday things we touch? Like that restaurant server who went to the bathroom and didn't wash his hands before bringing your another fork. Or the two year old with a runny nose who pushed the elevator button in the mall. Or the super nice mom selling girl scout cookies who just changed her newborn's poopy diaper.

The fact is, there are LOTS of things we can do to avoid contacting germs- like carrying sani-wipes and alcohol everywhere, avoiding public places, preparing all our own food and drink, and ordering our groceries online. But we don't do these things, and we still survive because our bodies have built in defense mechanisms (physical skin barrier, skin pH that kills bacteria, antibodies, white blood cells, cilia, etc.) to keep us from contracting germs.

KelRN215, BSN, RN · Jul 2, 2012

I noticed that the nurses I worked with while in school would routinely touch the patient with their bare hands, while I felt much more comfortable wearing my gloves.
What are your thoughts on this, while doing an ed assessment, gloves? It just seems much safer and cleaner to me.

For an assessment? No, I don't wear gloves to take VS, listen to heart sounds or do a neuro assessment unless the patient is on precautions.

I wear gloves if I'm: drawing labs, giving chemo, changing a dressing, giving a shot, touching a CVL, giving a bath, suctioning or otherwise handling bodily fluids.

I do not wear gloves to hold a baby, feed a patient, weight a patient, assess a patient, etc.

Tragically Hip · Jul 2, 2012

I'll bet that most of the skin of a patient with a broken leg is far less pathogen-laden than your cell phone or TV remote control.

How many physicians don gloves each time they prepare to a patient? Does even an ID doctor put on gloves before he'll shake your hand?

JZ_RN · Jul 3, 2012

Let me clarify a little... my last job was working with dementia patients. I would go into a room with one patient in particular and find her with BM smeared all over her bed, under her nails, in her hair, on her face, etc. A lot of these patients unfortunately had poor hygiene. Even when she's cleaned up, I am sure that some of that stuff remains under the fingernails, etc. She can't have a shower or bath (just bed baths due to a chronic non-healing surgical wound, why she came to us) and while they do use a shampoo cap. I just don't feel comfortable with this kind of contact with nasty things. While I am sure that the germs I could encounter touching these patients are probably elsewhere, the less I touch them, the better, and just the ick factor... I know that sounds bad, but I'd rather wear gloves and feel better than to feel like I am grossed out while giving patient care.

FlyingScot, RN · Jul 3, 2012

Let me clarify a little... my last job was working with dementia patients. I would go into a room with one patient in particular and find her with BM smeared all over her bed, under her nails, in her hair, on her face, etc. A lot of these patients unfortunately had poor hygiene. Even when she's cleaned up, I am sure that some of that stuff remains under the fingernails, etc. She can't have a shower or bath (just bed baths due to a chronic non-healing surgical wound, why she came to us) and while they do use a shampoo cap. I just don't feel comfortable with this kind of contact with nasty things. While I am sure that the germs I could encounter touching these patients are probably elsewhere, the less I touch them, the better, and just the ick factor... I know that sounds bad, but I'd rather wear gloves and feel better than to feel like I am grossed out while giving patient care.

But that is an extreme example. The average patient isn't anywhere near as contaminated. I would never wear gloves to just hold a hand or pat a shoulder...how de-humanizing. That's what good hand washing is for.

JZ_RN · Jul 3, 2012

A lot of my patients are chronic "diggers" as in, they dig for gold in their noses and dig for oil in their briefs, I can't sit and monitor each one all the time. Unfortunately with elderly dementia patients they do things that are unhygienic. Would I wear gloves to take a blood pressure on an A+O patient without a history of anything nasty? No. But would I be offended if someone wore gloves for every skin-to-skin contact with me if I were a patient? No. I have nothing nasty but they don't know that, and I don't know who they last touched either.