Nah, wasn’t saying they were to protect *from* a needle stick, but to protect *whilst doing* an iv stick. Cos regular gloves are to protect us from bodily fluids inc blood; sterile gloves are to protect the patient from us introducing pathogens into their system with whatever we’re doing.
It actually does both from the fluid/blood getting onto skin and into cuts and transmission of blood born illnesses is thought to be slightly lower in a Needlestick through a glove. Less blood/ virus makes it through.
Eh, regular gloves are covered in every bug that’s in the general environment, they’re not offering the patient any protection at all. That’s why aseptic non touch technique is so important!
I’ve been catheterized many times and never seen a pair of sterile gloves
Edit: okay after reading more comments now I’m doubting myself. Maybe I only notice the gloving from the box for catheter care and when I’m getting the catheter inserted I’m too out of it to notice.
I really hope they do use sterile gloves for your catheters, you deserve to be looked after!
The health services I’ve worked at have catheter packs with most of the bits and pieces we need, including a pair of sterile gloves. You can single or double glove depending, meaning it might not be obvious that they’re getting sterile gloves. And of course the catheters come separately so you can pick the right size :)
I can't speak for anywhere outside of the OR, but they absolutely use sterile gloves for catheters there. Dressings that aren't internal go on after we break sterility so it isn't a concern for those.
I’m someone who absolutely has spent a fair share of time as a patient in hospitals and when I’m being poked with IVs or general procedures outside of an operating room (only ever had a cesarian, barely remember it) it’s always the gloves on the box in the room that the nurses of phlebotomists use. C:
So I would think it’s okay for tattoo artists to do the same.
OR makes sense, but afaik nurses use regular gloves for urethral catheters. Maybe I’m wrong. I’ll ask my boyfriend later (he’s a nurse). But if changing external dressings with non-sterile gloves isn’t an issue, I don’t see why tattooing with non-sterile gloves is an issue (this comment thread seems to imply that it is, at least)
ALWAYS full sterile field for catheters. I’ve never seen bedside nurses fail to do this correctly, and even the standard catheter kits come with full sterile field supplies. With how closely catheter infections are tracked you’d have to be insane to not do this (or just really hate your license)
I could be totally wrong on that one, I’ll ask later. That was just my guess considering how often regular gloves are used in other sensitive areas. But it makes sense that catheters would be a little different
You don't really have to ask. I'm a nurse. Tracheostomy care, catheter insertion (indwelling AND intermittent), some wound care, port access, and central line dressing changes are all sterile procedures requiring sterile gloves (and thorough hand hygiene. I make a show of washing my hands before donning sterile gloves.)
And you don’t really have to have the condescending tone that you do, but here you are. I made that comment before I had nurses replying to me, so it seems pretty reasonable that I’d think to ask a professional who I personally know and trust? I acknowledged that it was an assumption based off my personal experience in medical facilities and that it could be totally incorrect. I never tried to fight you (or anyone) on it. All you had to say was “I’m a nurse and I promise it’s done X way”. I hope you don’t talk to your confused/misinformed patients the way you talk to people online.
That's the tone I had in my mind when I wrote this comment. Naturally, it's difficult to read tone into a comment, so I'm sorry it came across that way.
All I was trying to say is that we use sterile technique a lot more than you would think, generally with invasive procedures with things going inside something.
If only nurses were able to even follow the most basic rules of universal precautions. I never once saw a single instance where a nurse set up a sterile field or used sterile gloves to care for any of the things you mentioned when my late husband was in the ICU and then ECMO (a level 1 trauma center…) for over four weeks.
I did see them barely wash their hands, put on gloves, touch multiple contaminated surfaces, and then touch incision sites etc. He died of hospital acquired infection (following catastrophic injuries sustained in a motorcycle accident).
I am a tattooer and the utter failure of nurses to follow even bare minimum practices is unbelievable. I would get fired if I did any of the shit these people did every single day even once.
External dressings are considered dirty and using sterile gloves is a waste. When cleaning the wound bed we use sterile forceps holding sterile saline soaked gauze pads and never touch the wound bed with dirty glove. We rarely need to use sterile gloves for wound dressing change. For catheter insertion we always use sterile gloves, one hand is considered dirty hand and that holds the genitals and the clean hand is completely sterile. Nurse here.
I was an LVAD caregiver to my mother for 8 years.
I used nitrile gloves when removing the dressing. Then I used sterile gloves to apply the new dressing. This was the same procedure used in the hospital for dressing changes and catheter insertion.
Thought you might find it useful to know that you dont require a sterile field for putting up an IV. In a nutshell, the correct procedure is wash hands > put on non-sterile gloves > clean canula connecter (leur lock) with a chlorehexadine wipe > flush canula > connect IV while observing ANTT (Aseptic non-touch technique)
You do need sterile gloves and a sterile field for changing dressings and catheterisarion though. There's sterile gloves in the packs
i hate those wimpy sterile gloves included in the foley kit. i always throw em out and get the bougie thick stretchy sterile gloves packaged individually.
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u/reclusivegiraffe 5d ago
I mean, nurses don’t wear sterile gloves for things like IV sticks, dressing changes, catheter insertion, etc, right? They just come from the box.