should we wash our hands before we put on non-sterile gloves?

What do you think…. Should you be washing your hands BEFORE you try to pull out a pair of sterile gloves from those stupid wall boxes? In a study that examined the potential for disposable gloves to act as a vector for pathogen transmission, disposable gloves from an orthopaedic ward were examined both on opening and at regular periods thereafter. Turns out, they grew quite a few bugs: Environmental bacteria, particularly Bacillus species, were present on 31/38 (81.6%) of samples. Half (19/38) the samples were contaminated with skin commensals; coagulase negative staphylococci were predominant. Enterococcus faecalis, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas sp. or methicillin susceptible Staphylococcus aureus were recovered from 5/38 (13.2%) of samples. Significantly more skin commensals and pathogens were recovered from samples from days 3, 6, 9 than box-opening samples. Staphylococcus epidermidis and Klebsiella pneumoniae inoculated onto gloves remained viable for several days but counts decreased. Not surprising really when you consider all the poking and pulling and re-stuffing that goes into extracting a pair of non-sterile gloves from their tightly packed boxes. So the answer seems to be yes…we SHOULD be washing our hands before we grab a set of non-sterile gloves. And we should also be pushing our individual units to look for a better glove box design solutions. The authors concluded: Health-care workers introduced skin commensals and pathogenic bacteria into glove boxes...
Source: impactEDnurse - Category: Nurses Authors: Tags: the nurses desk: Source Type: blogs