Published
I am an OR nurse and have been recently advised by my management that it is no longer acceptable practice to wear clean exam gloves while transporting patients to and from surgery. Management has also advised the OR staff not to wear gloves while transporting the trash and dirty linen bags from the OR suite to the decontamination area. The theory concerning NOT wearing gloves is that if somone, ie., JCAHO, sees the gloves and does not know why the individual wearing the gloves is wearing them, the hospital might be sited. Infection Control is telling us that if the patient has a clean gown and clean linens on there is no need for gloves. This, of course, does not take into account splatter from IVs, etc while transporting. As a clinician with over 9 years of OR experience, I adamantly oppose this thinking. What is your experience? How does your institution view the use of clean exam gloves during transportation of patients?
Caryl Carver, RN, BSN