Trends in Your Field PIDP3100 Post 1
This blog assignment we will talk about the use of medical gloves. Within my field of instruction in health care we utilize hospitals and long term care facilities for student training. At these sites we are currently trending a Gloves Off Campaign. This is not an easy task to teach as students see current workers wearing gloves inappropriately for tasks that do not require gloves at all. When I pair my student up with a mentor it becomes a mine field of cross contamination as my students follow what they see instead of what they have been taught. I feel I have become the nag and the voice of Student Learning Contracts within my program as well as the one rebuking the workers. It is my job though to uphold the policies of the college and the health authority, this will be an ongoing learning curve. I am constantly asking students and workers to critically think about why they are wearing gloves.
As a bit of background, at the beginning of the Covid pandemic, when health professionals and scientists were working to reduce the spread, we used copious amounts of Personal Protective Equipment in the hopes of keeping everyone safe, which meant running out of gloves as we rarely touched anything without them on. Constantly donning gloves across the globe took a toll on the ecosystem, albeit the environment was not in the forefront of peoples minds between 2020-2022 so it virtually went unnoticed until recently when in May 2023 posters arrived asking if employees wanted to become Glove Awareness champions. Be a Gloves Off! Champion | Medical Staff (islandhealth.ca)
This current glove campaign is promoted via posters and information sheets.
A quote from the Information sheet "a nitrile glove takes at least 100 years to degrade" reinforces the realization of the level of toxicity to the environment. IPAC also claims that even after these gloves degrade they leave behind harmful chemicals in the environment and expand on the environmental, " for 2875 nitrile gloves per day the carbon emissions would be 27 tonnes of CO2 ( carbon dioxide) annually- this is the equivalent of driving a gas powered passenger vehicle around the circumference of the earth 2.7 times". Hence, the trending Gloves off Campaign.
It is promoted by the Infection Prevention and Control Office (IPAC) at Island Health Authority where I am situated and acknowledge the Lək̓ʷəŋən and W̱SÁNEĆ territory I work and reside on.
This promotion of decreasing glove use to reduce the impact on the environment is not just where I work and teach, but across Canada and around the world. Global awareness has occurred post pandemic. With World Hand Hygiene Day which was May 5th this year the world jumped on board with the focus on better hand hygiene and less disposable glove use. West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership in the UK wants to cut down on their glove use and discusses this on their webpage https://www.wypartnership.co.uk and includes "The overuse of gloves can create a false sense of security" and go on to say "Sometimes people forget this and don't wash or sanitise their hands as often as they should".
The World Health Organization (cdn.who.int) published a leaflet that talks about inappropriate glove use "the use of gloves when not indicated represents a waste of resources and does not contribute to a reduction of cross-contamination". (search: glove-use-information-leaflet.pdf )
As with many professions trends come and go like the tide. Ebbing and flowing with current managerial, environmental and societal concerns. This is one I hope stays around for the long run.
Information sheet posted here for educational purposes only not to be redistributed.
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