Idiot nurse

[usalsfyre]

I had one partner who wore the same gloves from the minute he pulled out the stretcher til we we were putting it back after unloading. That included driving.

It takes conscious effort to keep my head from exploding when I see this...

 

[DesertMedic66]

I do all the time. I also wash and or sanitize my hands more than my glove happy counterparts. I think the patients are safer in my ungloved but religiously washed hands than the gloved hand of my partner who touches multiple things including the patient with the same gloves.

I had one partner who wore the same gloves from the minute he pulled out the stretcher til we we were putting it back after unloading. That included driving.

Ooh ok I understand. I'm the total opposite. As soon as I get out of the rig I have gloves on. If I'm in the back of the rig with my patient then I have gloves on until I clean the gurney and the ambulance. If I'm driving I will take the gloves off. I hate using the sanitizer because it drys my hand outs and I don't use lotion. Washing my hands is fine tho.

 

[usalsfyre]

Gloves are usually in my pocket till I anticipate contact with body fluids, then they go on. When said contact is over, they come off. Which means the majority of the time I am ungloved.

 

[JPINFV]

I'm just curious, do the "gloves for every patient, regardless of which procedures are being done or the actual threat of contact of bodily fluids or respiratory infection" crowd wear gloves when ever they are out of the house? Do they avoid all contact with anyone who isn't a friend or family? Just because the patient is in the ambulance doesn't mean that they are automatically any more or less infective than anyone else.

 

[HotelCo]

My gloves are on during all patient contact, and while cleaning the ambulance before/after a call.

 

[HotelCo]

Do they avoid all contact with anyone who isn't a friend or family?

Why would I be touching strangers? :wacko:

 

[DesertMedic66]

Exactly. When I'm out in public I'm not touching people. I will only shake hands with friends and family. When I'm on duty I have to touch the patient to do medical aid.

 

[JPINFV]

Why would I be touching strangers? :wacko:

If someone trips, you won't offer them a hand? You never, say, use money when purchasing something? If you're in a business meeting (including things like interviews) you don't offer or accept a handshake ever? The fact is that there are germs around us all the time, especially on some of the most common things. Yet people somehow think that only patients are de facto dirty.

 

[DesertMedic66]

If someone trips, you won't offer them a hand? You never, say, use money when purchasing something? If you're in a business meeting (including things like interviews) you don't offer or accept a handshake ever? The fact is that there are germs around us all the time, especially on some of the most common things. Yet people somehow think that only patients are de facto dirty.

I've offered to help someone up but they never accept help. I don't have money so I can't buy anything lol. And the interviews I have done have been with fire/EMS people. So I'm either already wearing gloves from a test as are they or I already know them so they are a friend. Small town so I don't have to rub on people to get into an isle at a store.

 

[HotelCo]

If someone trips, you won't offer them a hand? You never, say, use money when purchasing something? If you're in a business meeting (including things like interviews) you don't offer or accept a handshake ever? The fact is that there are germs around us all the time, especially on some of the most common things. Yet people somehow think that only patients are de facto dirty.

If they can't get up, I use my debit card, yes, and I agree. we've had this conversation before.

I'll ask you: why not wear gloves?

 

[JPINFV]

I agree with wearing gloves for patients you aren't familiar with when you first meet. Once an assessment is done, then I think gloves, like other levels of BSI use should be based on your assessment. After all, when you go to the dentist, when the dentist isn't working in your mouth are gloves always on? Do the receptionist who hands you pens and forms wear gloves? When you go to the doctor and he's listening to your lung sounds, do they always wear gloves? So, if there's no ick or transmittable disease factor, I don't necessarily see the point in wearing gloves to, say, take a blood pressure.

As to "Why not wear gloves?" My issue is that I see the world as an inherently dirty world and that the money in my wallet are inherently more dirty than the majority of my patients who are not exuding bodily fluids nor showing signs and symptoms of infection.

 

[DesertMedic66]

I agree with wearing gloves for patients you aren't familiar with when you first meet. Once an assessment is done, then I think gloves, like other levels of BSI use should be based on your assessment. After all, when you go to the dentist, when the dentist isn't working in your mouth are gloves always on? Do the receptionist who hands you pens and forms wear gloves? When you go to the doctor and he's listening to your lung sounds, do they always wear gloves? So, if there's no ick or transmittable disease factor, I don't necessarily see the point in wearing gloves to, say, take a blood pressure.

As to "Why not wear gloves?" My issue is that I see the world as an inherently dirty world and that the money in my wallet are inherently more dirty than the majority of my patients who are not exuding bodily fluids nor showing signs and symptoms of infection.

as soon as i say hi to my dentist he gloves up. and we are friends too lol. my doc always wears gloves as soon as he enters the room. the receptionist does not however thats why there is alot of hand sanitizer in the doctors office. for me i wear gloves no matter what the patient looks like. to me it doesnt matter if there is or isnt bodily fluids. as long as there is any patient contact then i am gloving up and i will glove down when i am done dealing with the patient and after all the cleaning is finished.

 

[usalsfyre]

I've never seen any other health profession wear gloves with the same maniacal obsession as EMS. I've simply chalked it up to it's much easier to teach "wear gloves all the time" in the limited amount of time available in an EMT-Basic class than it is to teach how to do a real assessment of infectious risk (hence the "scene safe, BSI" dance).

 

[CAOX3]

I have to admit I don't wear gloves nearly as often as I should, when I started in ems no one wore gloves, stabbings, shootings, and car wrecks it didn't mater.

I try to keep a pair on me at all times, because if I don't have them I won't attempt to get them I wash my hands religiously. Minor complaint I'm not putting gloves on, never have and probably never will, after we load the patient we have sanitizer on the back door I hit that a few times and then after patient care I wash my hands.

Not saying it's right, but bad habits are hard to break.

 

[Aidey]

I've never seen any other health profession wear gloves with the same maniacal obsession as EMS. I've simply chalked it up to it's much easier to teach "wear gloves all the time" in the limited amount of time available in an EMT-Basic class than it is to teach how to do a real assessment of infectious risk (hence the "scene safe, BSI" dance).

Dialysis clinics are worse. I could go through a whole box of gloves in a 12 hour shift. I do get your point though. In comparison to MDs and RNs we are significantly more obsessive. I doubt anyone else starts out scenarios with "BSI!!".

 

[JPINFV]

Dialysis clinics are worse. I could go through a whole box of gloves in a 12 hour shift. I do get your point though. In comparison to MDs and RNs we are significantly more obsessive. I doubt anyone else starts out scenarios with "BSI!!".

Actually, the only two times I've worn gloves in standardized patient encounters was the pelvic/breast/rectal day (obvious reasons), and the one day I kept sneezing. This isn't an issue with verbalization, just the fact that we aren't expected to wear gloves for the majority of our exams, just to wash our hands or use sanitizer before starting the physical exam.

 

[mycrofft]

Back to the OP

If the oxygen issue was wrong, the language issue was wrong, and the iso issue was wrong, I'd be making danged sure that was the right patient!

 

[lightsandsirens5]

If they can't get up, I use my debit card, yes, and I agree. we've had this conversation before.

I'll ask you: why not wear gloves?

I'm sorry, I just noticed this....am I the only one who, the first time they read this thought, what the heck? "If they can't get up, I use my debit card......I was like, Huh? What the heck is he talking about....then I read the rest. But at first I was totally thrown off.

 

[Aidey]

No, don't worry, it took me a minute to connect those replies to the right questions too.

 

[Handsome Robb]

^Thats absolutely filthy^ When he asks you to drive do you tell him no? What's the point of a sterile glove if you touch anything and everything with it?

People make mistakes. It sounds like this mistake was made long before this nurse began caring for this pt. Are you so perfect that you have never made a mistake. Like someone else said, what matters is she caught it, and to be honest, she's right. One more hour sharing a room with the other pt would not have made a difference.