Disposable protective gloves are part of the daily routine in any medical facility that follows federal guidelines, and for good reason. Disposable protective gloves are crucial to fighting the spread of infection. The most important reason they are vital is that they protect the lives of healthcare workers and patients alike.

Disposable Protective Gloves Help Stop the Spread of Infection

Although gloves will not protect against airborne pathogens, person to person contact is still one of the most common methods of infection. Even patients who show no outward signs of infection can be carriers, and any broken skin is an invitation for infection. Protective gloves function as a disposable second skin, allowing physicians to treat each new patient with a clean pair of hands. It’s important to note that the use of disposable gloves does not replace other aspects of hand sanitation, but only maximizes cleanliness. Gloves dramatically decrease the risk of accidentally infecting one patient with another patient’s illness.

Personal Protective Equipment

OSHA’s guidelines for personal protective equipment, legally require employers to provide chemical and liquid resistant gloves for the protection of all employees. In a medical setting, disposable gloves are key in the protection and health of all healthcare staff. Even employees who never have physical contact with patients come into contact with hazardous materials on a regular basis. Bodily fluids represent the highest threat to employees. Blood can infect others with life threatening diseases like HIV, hepatitis B, and hepatitis C. Trace amounts of blood can enter nearly any other bodily fluid, and other pathogens can easily infect new hosts through saliva or mucus.

Chemicals in the workplace can also pose a serious threat to workers. Wearing protective gloves does more than protect your hands. Changing your gloves between the handling of different chemicals can prevent the creation of potentially toxic mixtures. There are plenty of reasons why protective gloves are a mandatory guideline in the vast majority of the medical field.

Even the color of gloves can save a life. While white gloves are optimal for those handling dark substances that must be clearly seen, black latex or nitrile gloves have just as many, if not more, uses. Black or colored gloves allow paramedics and EMTs to examine trauma patients without showing bright red blood stains on their gloves. This helps keep the patient calmer, which keeps everyone safer. These gloves are also ideal for handling powders in a laboratory setting.

Protecting the Patient

Healthcare workers are not exempt from passing along infectious diseases. Without protective gloves it would be all too easy to infect a patient with a disease a doctor is personally carrying. Patients need to be guarded against all possible sources of contamination, including their physicians. The mouth, mucus membranes, and even the smallest of open wounds can allow infection into the body. Gloves keep healthy patients healthy and minimize the risk of infection.

The Unexpected

Although most other forms of personal protective equipment, including disposable gowns and shoe covers, are only used for specific situations; protective gloves are mandatory for essentially, any patient interaction. The reason is simple: they protect against the unexpected. Checking a patient’s back for raised moles without gloves could bring a physician into contact with an open sore. Perhaps a patient has been wiping his nose on his sleeve and his nurse adjusts that sleeve to check his blood pressure. Gloves can prevent any number of incidents that may go unnoticed.

Hospitals and medical facilities would be ideal territory for infectious diseases if healthcare workers did not practice such conscientious, preventive measures. Wearing disposable protective gloves is one of the simplest but most effective of these practices.