unbelievable... in today's world

[ilmbg]

This is just an 'I can't believe it' vent! Not in today's world of nursing/healthcare....

Yesterday I went to the local hospital to have some labwork drawn.

My veins were being 'chinsy', so the lab tech used a butterfly, making her both hands 'used'. She called over another tech to help with the tubes/syringe. The 2nd lab tech did help...without gloves, and did get quite a bit of my blood on her hands. I didn't say anything- In one hospital I worked at -Phoenix- it was a $25,000 fine if you were caught without gloves drawing blood/starting IV's, etc.

[Shenanigans, RN]

Down under in most places its the phelbotomists who wear gloves when drawing blood, always, but nurses... not so much! At training and where I"ve worked, they tend to say "well, wear them if you have cuts or scratches on your hands... and you should because you're dealing with body fluids, but its up too you".

Me, I'll feel around my patient's skin without gloves, so I know where I'm going to jab, but I'll wear gloves if there's an obvious wound. But the moment I go in, gloves all the way. I saw someone cannulate in a poor manner without gloves - they forgot to release the tournique and so blood splurted out EVERYWHERE! And the pt was hep B+ as well!

But I had a slight chuckle to myself the other day, I was having blood taken and the phlebotomist went to all this trouble of cleaning my arm with alcohol swabs and the like, and then she goes and wipes it with a non sterile piece of guaze she picked up off the floor after she dropped the box. -_-'

[ilmbg]

shenanigans- GROSS!!

[Eclectic1]

I mean COME-ON! I've heard it noted that even before execution by lethal injection, an alcohol swab is used.

I'm just sayin.....

[elkpark]

I think it's all well and good to use standard precautions, and I always do, but let's keep things in perspective. With intact skin and thorough hand washing, the chances of acquiring a blood borne pathogen are miniscule.

ITA, plus, if you stick yourself with a needle, gloves ain't gonna help.

[SuesquatchRN, BSN, RN]

I don't do draws, but unless State is in da house I do INRs and BGs barehanded. I also know my population and unless senile dementia is blood-borne I won't catch anything. And my hands feel like sandpaper from all the washing.

Were I working with strangers, though, PPE all the way unless it were an emergency.

[chelynn]

I always wear gloves when I start IVs and draw blood most of the time for injections and CBGs I don't but I think I will change that starting tomorrow I will. Yes that's a good New Year's Resolution, to always wear gloves! Who's with me?

[ChristyRN2009]

I would've had to make a mystery phone call within ear shot of that phlebotomist saying "man, my HIV/Hep C/Swine flu/cholera is acting up..." And laugh while she washed her hands with bleach... But I am evil that way.

Any task with blood involved bigger than a drop needs gloves every time. Every once in a while I may check a blood glucose without it or a quick sq shot (although I think that's only happened twice and I can't remember why I didn't use gloves) but otherwise I have had MANY comments from patients about how many gloves I use. It makes some of them uncomfortable I think, like they believe I believe they are dirty, but I don't care. And they are dirty 99% of the time.

[nursej22, MSN, RN]

ITA, plus, if you stick yourself with a needle, gloves ain't gonna help.

Actually i believe that gloves do offer some protection; as the needle passes through the latex or nitrile, blood on the outside of the needle is pushed off, (sort of a sgueegee effect) leaving less to transfer.

[elkpark]

Actually i believe that gloves do offer some protection; as the needle passes through the latex or nitrile, blood on the outside of the needle is pushed off, (sort of a sgueegee effect) leaving less to transfer.

Yeah, I've heard that, too, and I'm not particularly impressed -- it's what always gets said by the "gloves are the magic answer to everything" folks when you point out that gloves don't protect you from needlesticks ... Plus, even if there is some "squeegee effect" from the gloves on the exterior of the needle, it does nothing for what's in the lumen of the needle.

[JaneyW]

I am definitely a glove wearer and teach my students the same. The problem I am seeing is that the 'clean' gloves that are in the patients' rooms aren't always really clean. They get stationed by the sink and get splashed on, they get stationed by the door and visitors dig in there with their unclean hands to grab a glove to blow up into a balloon or to take home. Some get pulled out by accident and drop on the floor and a well-meaning visitor or employee picks them up and stuffs them back in, etc. To protect myself, definitely, but I often think that my freshly-washed hands are much cleaner than those gloves from the box. IMHO