GLOVES

Will gloves protect you from the COVID-19 virus?  They might, but good hand hygiene will protect you just as well.  Mayo Clinic says washing your hands with antibacterial soap for 20 seconds or more is good hand hygiene.

In the hospital we wear gloves when we are working with a patient.  We don’t want to infect them with anything we’ve come in contact with from outside of their room.  We take the gloves off and dispose of them in the proper trash receptacle.  We wash our hands and put on a new set of gloves when we see our next patient.

I see too many people walking through Walmart, Publix etc. wearing gloves.  That practice is OK if you plan to remove and replace them every time you touch something in the store.  You may be protecting yourself, but you are spreading contamination from the can of soup to the grocery cart to your cell phone and to your face when your reach up and scratch you nose.  Studies have shown that we touch our faces as much as 100 times a day without realizing.  Think about how many times you pick up something in the store and then put it back on the shelf.  You now have contamination on your gloves and you left your contamination on the can.  The contamination you got from your car steering wheel, car keys or from the door as you entered the store.

The CDC recommends these actions for glove Use:

Wear gloves, according to Standard Precautions, when it can be reasonably anticipated that contact with blood or other potentially infectious materials, mucous membranes, non-intact skin, potentially contaminated skin or contaminated equipment could occur.

Gloves are not a substitute for hand hygiene.

1. If your task requires gloves, perform hand hygiene prior to donning gloves, before touching the patient or the patient environment.

2. Perform hand hygiene immediately after removing gloves.

3. Change gloves and perform hand hygiene during patient care, if gloves become damaged, gloves become visibly soiled with blood or body fluids following a task, moving from work on a soiled body site to a clean body site on the same patient or if another clinical indication for hand hygiene occurs.

4. Never wear the same pair of gloves in the care of more than one patient.

5. Carefully remove gloves to prevent hand contamination and dispose in a proper trash receptacle.

If you are at risk for COVID-19 because of existing conditions (Age, respiratory or cardiac history) you might consider staying at home and opting for home delivery or ask family or a friend to shop for you.

Gloves may give you a false sense of security.  Leave them for the first responders and medical staff.

Be safe and don’t waste gloves that only spread contamination if not used properly and WASH YOUR HANDS!

FHL Care Management.  We are in this together.  Any questions go to FHLCareManagement.com

FHL Care Management, LLC

Office 407.545.4430 CELL 407.432.3876

dreynolds@FHLCareManagement.com

EXCEPTIONAL CARE MANAGEMENT FOR EVERY  CLIENT, EVERY TIME!