Yesterday during my clinical, I was interviewing a HIV positive patient. Half way through, the primary nurse asked me to talk with her in the hall, and when we spoke she told me to wear gloves whenever I was with the patient or touching things in his environment.
The patient didnt have any open open cuts or bodily fluids out, and I didn't have any cuts and was just talking with the patient. There weren't any signs saying to use any special precautions either...
I personally don't think that situation neccesitated the need for gloves, but I was hoping to get someone else's opinion on this. :)
Also I'm a student, and the nurse was really adamant on the gloves so I didn't really ask questions.
It's a reasonable assumption that the nurse taking care of you is using appropriate hand hygiene. Besides, you're supposed to practice hand hygiene whenever you walk into a patient room.
I do. And then I glove up. But my patient doesn't know I hit the hand hygiene before entering.
You know what bothers me more than anything on this post? Is the OP, who is a student, is insuinuating that somehow gloving up can be viewed as discriminatory.
You know what bothers me more than anything on this post? Is the OP, who is a student, is insuinuating that somehow gloving up can be viewed as discriminatory.
What in the actual .......???
Are you kidding me???
If the RN was advising gloves specifically for touching things in an HIV+ pt's environment --
she told me to wear gloves whenever I was with the patient or touching things in his environment. [/Quote]
then actually, I am glad to see the OP ask the question.
I thoroughly disagree with you. Can you plan on when you are coming into contact with fluids? I was in a room just yesterday to help move a patient from one bed to another. I picked up the catheter bag and it was not clamped. Urine went all over me. But technically, I was not supposed to come in contact with fluids. You can't plan for accidental exposure.
I wear gloves, every, single, time. Even if I'm just turning off a beep on the pump. I can't tell people when to projectile vomit, when to bleed, when to poop and pee. It can happen when I just go to silence a pump.
You do you, and I'll do me. K?
But you also aren't arguing that standard precautions, including wearing gloves, must be observed anytime we touch a patient, which was what I was responding to.
For the record, I wear gloves when manipulating any part of the Foley system. Regardless, how much did your gloves protect you from urine "all over you"? Do you advocate full PPE at all times? Given your reasoning--after all, gloves won't protect you from projectile vomiting--why not?
Plus, how does the patient know I haven't had say, my finger up my nose before going in the room? Lol. I didn't, but how do they know? It's just as much for their protection as mine like I stated.
That's what hand hygiene is for, but, unfortunately, many nurses use gloves as a substitute for hand hygiene.
Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.
Yeah, that's a great way to make the patient feel like ****.
You could hug and kiss the patient on the mouth and you still don't need to wear gloves (I don't recommend that from a professionalism standpoint). This nurse is practicing in the 1980s, and it frankly makes me quite angry.
Plus, how does the patient know I haven't had say, my finger up my nose before going in the room? Lol. I didn't, but how do they know? It's just as much for their protection as mine like I stated.
In that case, your "finger up the nose" hand would be the one grabbing the gloves out of the big, messy glove box. The gloves would be contaminated too, then.
I thoroughly disagree with you. Can you plan on when you are coming into contact with fluids? I was in a room just yesterday to help move a patient from one bed to another. I picked up the catheter bag and it was not clamped. Urine went all over me. But technically, I was not supposed to come in contact with fluids. You can't plan for accidental exposure.
I wear gloves, every, single, time. Even if I'm just turning off a beep on the pump. I can't tell people when to projectile vomit, when to bleed, when to poop and pee. It can happen when I just go to silence a pump.
Plus, how does the patient know I haven't had say, my finger up my nose before going in the room? Lol. I didn't, but how do they know? It's just as much for their protection as mine like I stated.
Gloves are not going to protect you against projectile vomit or a free-wielding cath bag. You would need gown gloves faceshield... yet I don't see you advocating for wearing these for each patient interaction...
I think we are overdoing gloves these days. It's a waste of resources, for one. And, you find out a lot through human touch. Skin temperament, palpating a pulse, etc. And, nothing replaces the human touch.
Yes, there is too much paranoia these days. Commonsense has gone out the window.
Agreed. I especially get annoyed with those who insist on "double gloving" ...I don't know if the current gloves are the same as the old latex ones, but it actually increased the risk of them breaking from friction. Anyone can have HIV. This patient just disclosed the information to medical staff who you would have thought had been assigned to an active Ebola case (okay, now they're missing some stuff...but you get the idea).
Gloves are not going to protect you against projectile vomit or a free-wielding cath bag. You would need gown gloves faceshield... yet I don't see you advocating for wearing these for each patient interaction...
I had an obese patient that I was trying to assist from bed to BSC lift their leg and I suddenly felt a warm stream down my leg, foot, into my shoe...we don't have the option of body suits, pee happens. I changed into OR scrubs bottoms, a nonskid sock and shoe cover on one foot for the last couple hours of my shift.
I also had a patient code with upper GI bleed. Vomited on everyone while they were placing the tube. First week for the new interns. Great initiation to potential workplace hazards.
I use standard precautions. We can't work in a hospital AND live in a bubble.
Sounds like the nurse was paranoid and probably a bit uneducated. I know sometimes it hard to remove certain stigmas when it comes to things like infectious disease when it comes close to home. Just as the forum mentioned already, no bodily fluids...no problem.
I do. And then I glove up. But my patient doesn't know I hit the hand hygiene before entering.
I make a point of putting hand sanitizer on my hands as I walk into the room, and I make sure the patient sees me rubbing it in.
Besides, how can the patient know that I am not getting over the flu (or just coming down with it), and I could pass it on? How does the patient know that I did not C. diff on my scrub top and then accidentally rub it onto the corner of the pt's overbed table? If you think that wearing gloves make your patients fell better, whatever, go for it.
But, going back to the OP, wearing gloves because the pt is HIV+? Maybe not discriminatory in a "legal" sense, but I have used the word ignorant, and I stand by that description.
LovingLife123
1,592 Posts
I do. And then I glove up. But my patient doesn't know I hit the hand hygiene before entering.
You know what bothers me more than anything on this post? Is the OP, who is a student, is insuinuating that somehow gloving up can be viewed as discriminatory.
What in the actual .......???
Are you kidding me???