Advantages of wearing disposable gloves

Advantages of wearing disposable gloves

What are the advantages of wearing disposable gloves? Wearing gloves in the hospital helps prevent the spread of germs. This helps protect patients and healthcare workers from infection. Gloves are called personal protective equipment (PPE). Other types of PPE include gowns, masks, hats, and leggings. Gloves create a barrier between germs and hands. They help keep hands clean and reduce the chance of germs that can cause illness.

Wearing medical disposable gloves can be very advantageous to health professionals. They can help you protect your hands against contamination and infections. In this post we are going to dive deep into this topic and investigate more about it.

Advantages of wearing disposable gloves

When to wear gloves?

Wear gloves whenever you touch blood, body fluids, body tissues, mucous membranes, or broken skin. Even if the patient appears healthy and has no signs of germs, you should wear gloves for this type of contact.

Choose the right gloves

Disposable Gloves containers should be available in any room or area where patient care is performed. They come in different sizes, so make sure you choose the right size for a good fit. If the gloves are too big, it’s hard to hold things and germs can get inside them more easily.
Gloves that are too small are more likely to tear. Some cleaning and care procedures require sterile or surgical gloves. Sterile means “without germs”. These gloves come in numbered sizes. You should know your size in advance.

If you are working with chemicals, check the Material Safety Data Sheet to see what type of gloves you need. Do not use oil-based hand lotions or creams unless they are approved for use with latex gloves. If you are allergic to latex, wear vinyl or nitrile gloves and avoid contact with other products containing the material; if you are a doctor, you can read our article on the best types of disposable gloves.

Remove the gloves

When removing the gloves, make sure that the outside of the glove does not touch your bare hands. Follow these steps:

  1. Hold the top of the right glove with your left hand.
  2. Pull towards your fingertips. The glove will turn inside out.
  3. Hold the empty glove in your left hand.
  4. Place two fingers of the right hand on top of the left glove.
  5. Pull towards your fingertips until you turn the glove inside out and remove it from your hand. Now the right glove will be inside the left glove.
  6. Dispose of gloves in approved waste containers.
  7. Always wear new gloves for each patient and wash your hands between each patient to prevent the transfer of germs.

Advantages of wearing disposable gloves for health professionals:

Medical gloves are probably the most used personal protection item by health professionals. They are a must in any health institution. Gloves help break the chain of infection transmission and therefore, along with hand hygiene, it is one of the most important health safety measures.
Most professionals know this. However, it is the younger staff in the institutions who most value protection against infections, although this belief is not a guarantee of success in complying with the protocols.

At least that is what a recently published study conducted at the University Hospital of Leipzig, Germany, reveals that according to which, although almost all the professionals observed stated that they knew well and perfectly applied the technique of gloves, reality did not show that evidence.

Consequently, the glove appears to be a preventive measure that does not meet the expectations of users. Leads to impaired hand hygiene compliance while falsely conveying a sense of security; Similarly, the respondents were not sufficiently familiar with the indications for the correct change of gloves. All of this means that gloves appear to be a major patient safety issue, as they are used too often and incorrectly for self-protection.

What faults usually occur?

Although many know about the advantages of wearing disposable gloves, many did not practice the protocol in all its steps, making each step a possibility for error. In addition, gaps were found in the application of the information they had received.

typical mistakes


The study at the Leipzig University Hospital analyzed the behavior of 788 professionals, including doctors and nursing staff, from September 2017 to April 2018. These were some of the findings:

18.6%
Correctly practiced hand sanitizing before wearing gloves

65.1%
Disinfected hands after wearing gloves

27.5%
Changed gloves when situations called for it (such as dirt and punctures)

47.2%
Disinfected hands when changing gloves

Indeed, the low number of professionals who disinfected their hands before using the gloves was surprising, which clearly can cause contamination in the gloves and in the box that dispenses them. Likewise, it was evidenced that many did not heed the indication to change gloves and how to do it well.

Interestingly, although this information is available online and offered in trainings, more than half of hospital staff misunderstand that gloves are an insurmountable barrier against bacteria (69%), that hands do NOT have to be disinfected after use of gloves (92%) and that gloves should only be changed if they are punctured or dirty (95%). These errors or gaps in the information can occur in many more health institutions in the world.

What are gloves used for in a hospital?


Medical gloves have two main functions in the protection and prevention of infections:

Reduce the risk of contamination of the hands of health personnel when they come into contact with liquids of universal precaution, such as blood and other potentially contaminating fluids.

Reduce the risk of cross-contamination from patient to health professional, from professional to more patients and to the environment.

To fulfill the tasks of protection and prevention of infections, the use of gloves is considered mandatory during patient care that involves contact -or the risk of coming into contact- with body fluids, mucous membranes and non-intact skin and during outbreaks infectious. In all these cases it is assumed that the blood, sweat, feces, saliva or nasal fluid may contain pathogenic microorganisms capable of contamination. At the same time, the immune system of the patient, precisely because of their condition, may be weak and the patient is more susceptible to infection.

Therefore, when coming into contact with the patient, the glove must be free of contamination; and, at the end of the care, the professional’s hands must be clean.

What protection do medical gloves offer?


According to the World Health Organization, several clinical studies have shown that gloves do protect the health of health personnel and help in the safety of patients.

However, the effectiveness of gloves depends on understanding the risks, knowing the protocol, and wearing medical gloves properly.

The WHO reminds that medical gloves do not offer complete protection against contamination of the hands. They are very effective barriers, but not infallible. Protection depends on these characteristics:

Penetration:

Substances may enter the glove through tears or imperfections and contaminate or damage the skin.

Permeability:

refers to the ability of the glove to protect against exposure to contaminating substances, which move in a molecular process through the latex, vinyl, neoprene or nitrile material until they reach the skin.

Degradation:

gloves can degrade, lose their physical characteristics, in contact with chemicals.

Penetration time:

It is estimated that the gloves are resistant and provide good protection for periods of ten to 30 minutes, depending on the type of glove. This is the reason why prolonged use of gloves can contribute to contamination of hands, patients and the environment.

Good practices in the use of medical gloves


Many of the mistakes are made due to carelessness, ignorance or the desire to do everything well. Being aware of the damage that we can cause with a bad practice in the use of gloves is a good start to encourage us to follow the protocol.

  1. Hand washing with soap and water or an alcohol-based solution is essential before putting on gloves, because there is a risk of contaminating the glove box and the gloves you are going to use.
  2. The proper time to put on the glove is just before patient care, not before entering the room or procedure room. Opening the door or handling anything can contaminate the glove.
  3. Gloves are recommended only when contact with the patient’s body fluids, mucous membranes, non-intact skin, and potentially infectious material is anticipated.
  4. Gloves are removed upon completion of patient care. Immediately afterwards, the hands are disinfected, which can become contaminated during the procedure or when removing the glove.
  5. The same glove should not be used in the care of several patients.
  6. The change of gloves is advised when changing from one site on the patient’s body to another, for example, from the revision of a medical device to a mucous membrane, from non-intact skin to a surface.
  7. Gloves are disposable and should not be reused even if disinfection has been attempted.
  8. The gloves are disposed of in the containers destined for hazardous waste, because it is assumed that they have come into contact with potentially polluting materials.

conclusion


It is possible that in many health institutions, professionals assume that they are performing good hand hygiene techniques and the use of gloves. A study shows that this is not always the case. Gloves are very effective in preventing infections and that is why it is important to know how to use them properly and raise awareness about the importance of having a good practice.

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