Who wears gloves when starting an IV?

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  1. When starting an IV do you.........

    • 78
      Always wear gloves, even children & very elderly pts
    • 13
      Wear gloves depending on what the pt looks like
    • 7
      Never wear gloves

79 members have participated

I've been a nurse for 29 years and have a really hard time starting IV's with gloves on since I learned to do it without gloves and have been doing it for years without gloves. I try my best to wear gloves everytime but sometimes I will cut the top the finger off of the glove on my left index finger so I can still feel and then pull it up over my finger once I get a flashback. Sometimes I have an IV in before I realize that I didn't put gloves on. Old habits die hard. I was wondering if some of you older nurses have this same issue or if you younger nurses have trouble starting IV's with gloves on or are you just used to it since that's the way you learned?

Specializes in 5 yrs OR, ASU Pre-Op 2 yr. ER.
you're only fooling yourself if you think gloves are going to protect you.

That's a poor excuse not to wear them.

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Specializes in Nurse Scientist-Research.

Ok, not an IV therapy nurse here, just a regular ole RN (working NICU). I started Nursing school a few months after gloves became mandatory so I was fortunate to learn that way. Of course I still see nurses today not wearing gloves. I see it way more now than I did in the adult world. Though I think we have it safer due to the fact that none of our infants are "engaging in high risk behaviours" they did just emerge from and share circulation with a mom who might not have been as low risk. We are lucky that the majority of the moms had prenatal testing for all the major diseases but not all have prenatal care and not all diseases are tested for and not all tests are fool-proof!! Besides the whole OSHA thing. . .

The "nice" thing about starting IV's on the NICU kids is that for the most part they don't have palpable veins, it's a visual thing all the way. I have gleefully rejoiced the few times I went to start on IV on an infant that had a palpable vein. But nurses in the NICU still go gloveless, because that's the way they learned and they feel like the infants are 100% safe (except the known Hep B/C, HIV, whatever). I don't get it. . .

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Ok, not an IV therapy nurse here, just a regular ole RN (working NICU). I started Nursing school a few months after gloves became mandatory so I was fortunate to learn that way. Of course I still see nurses today not wearing gloves. I see it way more now than I did in the adult world. Though I think we have it safer due to the fact that none of our infants are "engaging in high risk behaviours" they did just emerge from and share circulation with a mom who might not have been as low risk. We are lucky that the majority of the moms had prenatal testing for all the major diseases but not all have prenatal care and not all diseases are tested for and not all tests are fool-proof!! Besides the whole OSHA thing. . .

The "nice" thing about starting IV's on the NICU kids is that for the most part they don't have palpable veins, it's a visual thing all the way. I have gleefully rejoiced the few times I went to start on IV on an infant that had a palpable vein. But nurses in the NICU still go gloveless, because that's the way they learned and they feel like the infants are 100% safe (except the known Hep B/C, HIV, whatever). I don't get it. . .

when someone in your department gets sued, everyone will change there ways........Its sad it takes something like that to make people do whats right anyways.

One hospital i worked at, nurses didnt check for patency all the time prior to IV pushes. Their theory was, i checked it an hour ago and it was fine then. A nurse gave so me iron IVP via an infiltrated peripheral IV, gave the lady a large permanent brown spot on her anterior forearm (Very white, pale lady). She sued and won a huge amount of money from both the nurse and hospital. SInce then everyone always checks........

we always complain about how our country is sue happy....Well stop giving them reasons/ammo to sue.

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Since I have been nursing and starting IV's for nearly 30 years - I think I can safely speak from experience. Although gloves come in all sizes and fits, there is ABSOLUTELY no reason to ever start an IV without using them. It is a foolish risk to take for your own sake (HIV, Hepatitis, etc) and a very litigious action towards the patient. If you would not take the proper precautions, gloves, site prep, etc; and the patient would develop an infection, you are done! You have zero defensible claims. You have not followed the standards as set by the Infusion Nurses Society and therefore there is no way to justify your actions. I am sorry, but that temporary convenience is not worth the potentially life altering consequences.

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I wear gloves always. I start IV's on tiny babies so I can't really palpate veins anyway they are so small...I have to go on sight. (I palpate to make sure it's not an artery...especially in the scalp) Maybe some NICU nurses can palpate but I can't. So that's not an issue for me.

As far as what they look like...well I work around newborn babies. I mean how sweet, innocent and pure can you get right? I have to assume that they all are potentially infectious and sadly some are. That sweet cherubic nine pounder can very well have HIV. Not to mention right after they are born they are covered in all sorts of nice things. I think too many people let their guard down when it comes to babies, elderly and children.

I learned my lesson when I just got my LVN. I was going to start an IV on an elderly man. He was about 70ish. Very nice looking man and very healthy looking. He looked one of those people on the Centrum Silver commercials. He also had a wife of 50+ years and 3 great kids and so on. Educated and respectable...you get the picture. Well I was going to start the IV and just as I was going in he stopped me. He asked if I had read his chart. I said not yet...why. He said. "Well, you might want to know I'm HIV positive" (blood transfusion, he told me) I think all the color just drained from my face when he told me. I felt embarrassed and foolish and scared at the same time. I mean he's to old to have HIV and he looked so clean right? Wrong...Blood borne patogens don't really care what you look like and who you are. What if he had not told me? (I can be messy with my IV's too) Scary stuff.

The thing is you can never assume...please be careful.

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Hi Everyone! I found this site and I have a question for all of the nurses here. First let me start out by saying that I'm not a nurse, but I have to go for IV treatments. Just recently my doctors office hired a new nurse. The old nurse always wore gloves, and I noticed that the new nurse doesn't wear gloves when starting the IV or taking it out. I also didn't see her wash her hands at all. I decided that if she didn't use gloves next time I would speak to her about it. Well, the same thing happened the next time, so just as she was about to start the IV, I asked her why she didn't use gloves, and she told me that it's harder to find the vein with gloves on. I told her that I would feel much more comfortable if she would wear them, for my protection as well as hers, and she told me that wearing gloves has nothing to do with my protection....wearing gloves is for her protection only. I really had to insist that she wear them, so she put them on to start the IV, but she made it quite obvious that I had annoyed her. Also, she told me that after using her "Purell" hand sanitizer, (she only used that after I commented on the fact that she didn't wash her hands) that her hands are cleaner than any gloves. My question is: Is it possible for me to develop an infection from the nurse not using gloves? As a patient, shouldn't I be able to request that my nurse wear gloves while starting/stopping my IV? Should I contact the office that she works for to let them know about this? Any info you could give me would really be appreactied. Thank you!

This site is for nurses to communicate with other nurses. Would a moderator kindly lock this thread? I think the point about wearing gloves has been made.

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Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

Folks: GLOVES and UNIVERSAL PRECAUTIONS are not an "optional" thing in health care. To violate them puts all at risk, patients, staff, everyone. It is cut and dried. Thanks for your participation in the thread. I think the point has been made.

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