Sunday, April 13, 2008

All Gloved Up and Nowhere To Go

My experience is that about one in 20 examination gloves (not to be confused with surgical gloves) have a fault of some sort - breaking while being put on, unexpected size discrepancy, holes present already in the glove, deformed glove or adherent to another glove.

I must admit, however, that I am not a big glove wearer. Cringe if you will, but I do not wear gloves to examine groins, scrota, or feet. I only go to the trouble of donning them if there is an ulcer, wound, pus, or (potential) intertrigo (commonly known as skin-fold porridge). I am, however, an avid hand washer and user of alcoholic hand rubs.

I also do not wear gloves when putting in IVs or taking blood. A poorly fitting examination glove is completely useless to me as protection against a needlestick injury. If non-sterile surgical gloves were cheaply available I'd consider wearing them - but poor quality examination gloves only make my job more difficult and dangerous.

From The Australian - Examination gloves fail lab testing

(Click to Expand)


4 comments:

Jeffrey said...

yea i always didnt agree with wearing gloves when taking blood or putting in IVs, they offer absolutely no protection at all. it just "looks" safe.

but as a student, that's a big no-no. so we obey.

DHS said...

my work seems to have gone over to nitrile exam gloves, which I absolutely refuse to use for procedures - you can't feel a thing through them. in our theatres, opened-but-not-used surgical gloves are put in a box, and I sometimes grab a few of my size for the times when I really want a proper glove - otherwise I do most things without gloves. (I do use gloves for dressings & suture removal.)

The Girl said...

I often joke that if condoms were made by the same people who made examination gloves, they would go bankrupt very quickly.

Bongi said...

the very first pr i did as a student, the glove broke. i washed my hands basically constantly for about a week. but thereafter i always double checked the gloves before checking the nether regions