Columbia Aged Care Services

There has been an increase in the use of gloves by healthcare workers since the emergence of AIDS in the 1980’s. With the advent of Universal precautions, and now Standard precautions, gloves are recommended to be worn whenever contact with blood or body fluid is anticipated. Staff need to take care to use gloves appropriately, think about why gloves need to be worn and not use gloves unnecessarily. From an Occupational Health and Safety perspective, latex sensitivity and latex allergy must not be ignored. Important issues regarding wearing of gloves are:

• Only use medical examination gloves for direct patient or resident care
• Wear the correct size of glove
• Wash hands before donning gloves
• Wash hands immediately after removing gloves
• Change examination gloves frequently
• Keep fingernails trimmed to reduce incidence of tearing and pinholes
• Liberally use water soluble lotions and moisturisers that are approved for use in the healthcare and aged care setting
• Don’t use hand care products that contain mineral oil, petroleum or lanolin if using natural rubber latex gloves as these chemicals can damage the latex
• Don’t wear gloves for tasks that don’t involve contact with blood or other potentially infectious materials
• Don’t store gloves near sterilizers, heaters, air conditioners or where exposed to temperature extremes, sunlight, ultraviolet light or fluorescent light as these conditions promote glove breakdown, compromising the protection they provide.