Where to wear gloves?

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Specializes in LTC.

I am pre-nursing and was concerned when I saw this:

My mom transferred to a rehab hospital after treating lung infection for 6 weeks at hospital. The first thing I noticed while I was there was that every time a nurse came out of a patient room, they were wearing gloves (blue gloves, if it matters). One nurse left a room that had a sign on the door calling for special precautions. She came back (from supply room?) with one glove still on and a syringe in the other hand. My mom's nurse left the room with her gloves on to get meds and came back with (assuming) same gloves on.

This makes me nervous. Am I over reacting?

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I'd be concerned! This is a battle that is constantly being fought in our rehab facility, which is connected to our LTC facility. The nurses and especially CNAs are always walking in and out of the res rooms with gloves on. The rooms are semi private and I have found the CNAs going from one res to another without taking the gloves off!!!! They are written up and counciled repeatedly, but it is so out of hand, if they started firing everyone who is caught, there'd be no one! C- diff and VRE runs rampent in hospitals and nursing homes.

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Specializes in Brain Injury Rehabilitation.

I agree! We have a policy-NO GLOVES OUTSIDE OF PATIENT ROOMS!

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Specializes in Oncology/Haemetology/HIV.
I agree! We have a policy-NO GLOVES OUTSIDE OF PATIENT ROOMS!

That is generally a good policy, but on some other units, it may be problematic.

The laundry drops are outside the room. You have contaminated linen, to drop. Are you going to handle it with bare hands?

The chemo drops are down the hall - even if you change your gloves, the equipment will have to be transported with some gloves on.

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Specializes in Brain Injury Rehabilitation.

oh, well, we have our linen containers in the rooms and no chemo. I mean, in general that is our rule. Sometimes you will have to break it-I just meant in general, don't walk around with gloves on bc of the very same reason as what was seen.

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Specializes in L&D, medsurg,hospice,sub-acute.

Gloves are okay outside of patient rooms for carring dirty bags, etc....

Otherwise--NO you are not overreacting....

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Specializes in RN CRRN.

my prob is when we have pts with cdiff who are invol on floor (carpeted) and we ask for footies they tell us we dont need them. Ordered them anyway. Also with cdiff, mrsa in trach, vre urine and we suction with gown, gloves, footies, mask and now face shield (dont ask-first time sxning pt coughed and trach cannula landed on gown with blood and mucus) then we see Resp go in there with gown and gloves. only. Confuses pt. and is just crazy. When sxning WEAR GOGGLES OR SHIELD! believe me first time I had that happen in my 2 1/2 years. Who cares if pp look at you funny. You wont have to get stuck for exposure and worry about what results will be.

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Specializes in inpatient rehab (general, sci, tbi, cva).

No gloves are allowed out of rooms unless you're Housekeeping doing something dirty.

Techs transport linen in clean plastic bags and are instructed not to wear gloves from room to room. They can wear gloves when transporting a contact isolation patient to therapy. The pt wears a gown for any transportation and a sheet, too if in bed for procedures like dialysis, etc.

We have to gel in and out of pt rooms and are required to wash our hands if we have any bodily fluid contact. We may wear 2-3 pairs of gloves in a room for stuff like dressing changes, etc. Our pts are instructed to ask people if they sanitize before they assess them and they can ask you to wash your hands first. In double rooms, I always go to the sink and wash after I assess the first pt.

The handwashing police do spot check at our hospital and if you're not hand sanitizing, they tell your manager and you will be warned.

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Specializes in RN CRRN.
I am pre-nursing and was concerned when I saw this:

My mom transferred to a rehab hospital after treating lung infection for 6 weeks at hospital. The first thing I noticed while I was there was that every time a nurse came out of a patient room, they were wearing gloves (blue gloves, if it matters). One nurse left a room that had a sign on the door calling for special precautions. She came back (from supply room?) with one glove still on and a syringe in the other hand. My mom's nurse left the room with her gloves on to get meds and came back with (assuming) same gloves on.

This makes me nervous. Am I over reacting?

sometimes with isolation rooms we remove our gloves outside the room in a special trash can---especially if we are removing something (anything) from the room--or even touching the door knob on the way out. We then wash our hands in the utility room and we put on new gloves before entering the room from the cart in the hall. But the thing to remember is if we leave the room with gloves on it is so we can open the door or remove stuff that needs removing from the room with superbugs--we cant touch the stuff we remove---it is an infection risk, but they are new gloves---that haven't touched anything else in the room. If I had been working in the room and had to take trash out for instance I would remove the gloves I had been wearing wash my hands in the room and then put on new gloves before leaving -without touching anything else in the room I would pick up the trash with the new gloves on ---one hand on the trash and the other to open the door,...then when done with trash dumping in utility room remove gloves and wash hands....then new gloves on entering room....(or I would open door in room so I didnt have to touch door on way out, remove used gloves, wash hands and put on one new glove to pick up trash with--then when getting to utility room use the clean ungloved hand to open door, and after dumping trash remove that glove without touching anything and wash my hands) JUST REMEMBER we ARE careful----we dont want to take that stuff home either....so we are careful about it.....You just arent in our heads to know what we are doing which is scary for you....i am sure:uhoh21:

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Specializes in RN CRRN.

also we arent required to hand sanitize---we ARE required to wash our hands upon entering and leaving rooms etc. It is the most effective means of preventing infection. Also hand sanitizing is NOT effective against spores (CDIFF) for that you MUST wash with soap and water ...

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Specializes in inpatient rehab (general, sci, tbi, cva).

Silvergirl:

Sure, you have to wash with Cdiff, but there is documented evidence that hand santizing is appropriate if you are not dealing with patients with Cdiff. This is why our facility sends in the "hand sanitizing police". They look at the signs (required for Cdiff pts) and monitor us going in and out of rooms. They're like mystery shoppers, so we have no idea who they are.

We also mark and if possible, disable the hand sanitizer dispensers in Cdiff rooms, so staff don't inadvertenly use them upon leaving the rooom.

Cdiff is a whole other ballgame, but hand sanitizing is the name of the game whether it's alcohol-based or handwashing. Besides, some people don't come anywhere near the 15-30 seconds of friction they need to actually remove the organisms during handwashing.

We also have rules as to when we should handwash, and it's lengthy. Face touching (as in touching your cheek) also requires handwashing.

From my short time in rehab, I've noticed one of the most important things is monitoring antibiotic use. (We ask about them and our pharmacy notifies the physician, NP, if they're on the record for more than 14 days). If you use them too long, someone is bound to get Cdiff. Many of our patients now routinely get Lactobacillus when on antibiotic therapy.

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