Wear gloves during assessment?

[future_nurse11]

I am a new nursing student who started clinicals pretty recently. Im wondering.. Do you wear gloves when taking vitals & during a full-body assessment? I know to follow what the instructor says to do.. My instructor doesn't enforce that we wear gloves during assessments.. But would it be a good idea to do it anyway? I had another instructor before who said she wears gloves anytime she has pt interaction. Just wondering what's the norm & what's best health-wise.

[sistrmoon, BSN, RN]

I work Onc and even sweat contains chemo. So more often than not, I do during assessment(not vital signs though.) Definitely unexpected things can happen and unexpected things can be found during your assessment.

[MrChicagoRN, RN]

If you choose to wear gloves for routine VS, etc. Please remember to remove gloves and perform hand hygiene after each and every patient.

it's unfortunately common for caregivers to go from person to person without changing gloves or cleaning their hands. End result is that theyve protected themselves, but not the patients.

[annie.rn]

I do not unless the pt. is on isolation precautions. I feel like good hand hygiene and making sure the skin on my hands is intact is adequate protection. I don't see too many of my coworkers wearing gloves for such tasks either. Touch is an important assessment tool and I find that gloves can interfere. Also, I think skin to skin touch can be good for patients...especially if they are from a marginalized population that may not get too much human touch in their day to day life.

[BrandonLPN, LPN]

I think gloving up for taking a BP on a non-iso, non-soiled patient is a bit much.

OTOH, my mother remembers a time when no one wore gloves when wiping incontinent patients, which seems unimaginably gross by today's standards. So maybe twenty years from now those of us who don't glove for VS will be looked back upon as germ-spreading philistines, who knows

[ICURN3020]

I have been surprised one too many times and as a rule wear gloves whenever I am in contact with a patient. As far as not wearing them when caring for casual contact with patients not in isolation, I have on countless occasions came in for my shift and discovered that the cute LOL who was fine yesterday now has been placed on precautions and I'm left replaying my previous contact with her in my head and hoping for the best.

As someone else mentioned, when someone suddenly begins vomiting, bleeding out, etc. is not the time to be scrambling to find and put on gloves...which I've noticed seems to be more difficult to do when you're in panic mode

[cheezwizz90]

I wear gloves for vitals and assessments if the patient has poor hygiene, is obese (slimy skin folds abound), is in isolation or has burns/wounds in areas I need to touch, or any other circumstance where I might be exposed to something foul. It is overkill, wasteful and can make the patient feel dirty/contaminated if you use gloves to do every little thing, because even moving their bedside table and doing nothing else still requires handwashing when you're done...you just never know. It's not that big of a deal to take 3 steps and 5 seconds to put on a pair if the need arises.

[imintrouble, BSN, RN]

I know I shouldn't look at the situation like this, but it just feels insulting to put on gloves with the simplest physical interaction with a pt.

My brain is saying idiot, but it's how I'd feel if I were wearing the hospital gown instead of the stethoscope.

[classicdame, MSN, EdD]

wear gloves. Better safe than sorry.

[silverbat]

Hummm, cheezwhiz90.. not all obese people have an abundance of slimy skin folds. These are found on all body sizes. Obese people are made to feel bad enough without gloves being worn for everything.

Yes, I do wear gloves when I think I will be in contact with bodily fluids, dressing changes, incontinence care, obvious bleeding. You can't beat the HUMAN touch of skin on skin for multiple assessments, as well as compassion!

I think gloving for every contact would be like maybe you should wear a face shield and mask in case someone coughs or spits or vomits in your vacinity. That could happen at any time, right?! So why aren't those being worn with every interaction? How about iso gowns, hats, shoe covers? Shouldn't they be worn at all times, after all, anything could happen, right?!! NO.. there is a time and a place for everything. Common sense should prevail!!!!

[jifferte, BSN, MSN, RN]

Recently, I had the misfortune of winding up in my local ER. I had to admit I was slightly taken aback when the nurse wore gloves to do a simple neuro assessment. I guess I come from a different time, but I find this to be an issue that affects dignity.

If you're not likely to come into contact with bodily fluids, I don't really understand the rationale for pervasive gloving.

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[ATRUELADY]

I wear gloves all the time. There's been plenty of times I would come back to work and find a patient now on contact precautions for MRSA and VRE

[BuckyBadgerRN, ASN, RN]

I work in clinic. Specialty. Not much oozing or bleeding here unless we create it =)