Universal Precautions

[Samt9]

Hi all!

I just accepted my very first RN job at a large private practice. Everything seems nice about it. The fact that I will work 9am-5pm M-F, have weekends and holidays off just seems great. I did take a $3-$5 cut in pay though and I will be the ONLY RN working there. All the other nurses there are LPNs. Anyways, I had something that was brought up to me the other day that I find totally shocking. One of the nurses who has worked there for 20+ years has been helping me out with getting all the information I need about this job. She had mentioned to me that one of the other LPNs thought it was strange and "unnecessary" that I wore gloves every time I gave a flu shot or allergy shot the day I shadowed, and I was told that the nurses won't always have enough time to put them on and I'll soon learn their ways.......WHAT?! When she told me this I was so dumbfounded! I couldn't believe she said that..But, I'm going to do what's right and safe for the patient and whats safe for me, which is to wear gloves!!

I just wanted to know what anyone else thought of this situation and if they have ever been told the same thing, or something similar before and what you did in that situation.

[Jory, MSN, APRN, CNM]

I gave a lot of injections at a clinic I recently left. I only used one glove. Gloves won't protect you against a needle stick and washing your hands should be enough. I always had a couple of pieces of gauze available in case of a bleed and used my gloved hand for that.

I think gloves are necessary and I protect myself accordingly, however, they are not necessary for everything.

[klone, MSN, RN]

This one's even better - copyright 2010 from the WHO:

Indications for glove use in health care - WHO Best Practices for Injections and Related Procedures Toolkit - NCBI Bookshelf

When undertaking injections, DO NOT use gloves:

• for routine intradermal, subcutaneous and intramuscular injections
  
  
• if the health worker's skin is intact
  
  
• if the patient's skin is intact.
  

[AcuteHD]

color me surprised, thanks for providing source links.

[Karou]

I learned something new today! Thank you, Klone.

I wear gloves and will still do so. I don't want to accidentally get blood on my own hands after administering an injection, and patients seem to feel more secure when I am wearing gloves.

Really interesting to read all the evidence.

[BuckyBadgerRN, ASN, RN]

I don't wear gloves for 99% of my injections, including insulins.

[loriangel14, RN]

Hospital

[loriangel14, RN]

The nurses that go around giving the staff their flu shots at work in the fall don't wear gloves

[annabanana2]

I work in the community and for 2 or 3 weeks out of the year we do a "flu blitz" with a team going around doing nothing but administering flu vaccine all day long. I've given hundreds of flu vaccines in a day. I don't wear gloves for any of it unless (as previously mentioned), my skin isn't intact or the person who's receiving the vaccine's skin isn't intact (or they are particularly dirty or sweaty or whatever). It would be a huge pain (and waste of gloves) to gel, don gloves, give injection, doff gloves, gel, don a new pair of gloves... and plus our educator says it generally tends to lull people into a false sense of security and can cause people to forget to gel in between folks.

[NurseSpeedy, ADN, LPN, RN]

Protect yourself. Wear gloves. It only takes one time to regret the consequences. Yes, the chances are low, but is it worth the risk to take five seconds to wear the gloves? Hand washing is required and should take much longer anyway, gloves or no gloves. I wonder if these employees skipped this too. You will see a lot of bad habits in nursing. The best thing you can do is not repeat these bad habits to save time.

[Tex.]

I'm not going to debate the need to glove up when giving vaccines. Personally, I think we have gloves available, so why wouldn't you?

But what irks me is the nurse(s) that told you sometimes you won't have time to don gloves....really?? Like when?