80% of nurses and doctors suffer from hand conditions – an overlooked threat

Dr. Sła­womir Gondek  

One of the fun­da­men­tal aspects of every health­care work­er’s job is hand hygiene and the use of med­ical gloves. These basic and rou­tine actions can lead to seri­ous health issues that are often over­looked. In fact, stud­ies show that up to 80% of nurs­es and doc­tors* strug­gle with var­i­ous skin prob­lems, and their hands – the tools of their trade and a sym­bol of care for patients – fre­quent­ly become a source of pain and dis­com­fort. More­over, they can pose a poten­tial threat to the patients them­selves. 

A rarely discussed problem 

Accord­ing to research pub­lished in the “Annals of Work Expo­sures and Health,” between 12.9% and 23% of doc­tors expe­ri­ence der­mati­tis relat­ed to glove use, with gyne­col­o­gists, internists, and sur­geons being par­tic­u­lar­ly affect­ed. These fig­ures should raise con­cern, espe­cial­ly con­sid­er­ing that doc­tors’ work relies on direct con­tact with patients, and the health of their hands direct­ly impacts the qual­i­ty of care they can provide.[1] 

Skin prob­lems most com­mon­ly man­i­fest as irri­ta­tion, dry­ness, and crack­ing of the epi­der­mis. In more advanced cas­es, they appear as con­tact der­mati­tis, which can lead to painful ulcers. The pri­ma­ry cause is pro­longed con­tact between the skin and the inner sur­face of gloves, lead­ing to mechan­i­cal abra­sions, which are fur­ther exac­er­bat­ed by sig­nif­i­cant­ly increased humid­i­ty due to occlu­sion and the pres­ence of var­i­ous chem­i­cal­ly aggres­sive com­po­nents in sweat. Fre­quent use of skin dis­in­fec­tants also plays a sig­nif­i­cant role, hav­ing a par­tic­u­lar­ly neg­a­tive effect on skin con­di­tion in urgent sit­u­a­tions, where gloves are worn before the dis­in­fec­tant has ful­ly evap­o­rat­ed. [2]

Lack of awareness

Many health­care work­ers are unaware that the skin irri­ta­tions and prob­lems they expe­ri­ence are not mere­ly a “nor­mal” part of their job. Often, in the rush of dai­ly work, they down­play the symp­toms, believ­ing them to be inevitable. The con­stant lack of time due to staff short­ages, com­bined with the immense impor­tance and respon­si­bil­i­ty of their tasks, leads to post­pon­ing efforts to address these issues. How­ev­er, the real­i­ty is dif­fer­ent – the right approach to hand care and the use of prop­er­ly select­ed gloves can sig­nif­i­cant­ly reduce, or even elim­i­nate, these prob­lems.

Unfor­tu­nate­ly, as research pub­lished in the “Inter­na­tion­al Archives of Occu­pa­tion­al and Envi­ron­men­tal Health” reveals, aware­ness of the risks asso­ci­at­ed with inad­e­quate hand pro­tec­tion remains low, and the lack of train­ing and edu­ca­tion in this area con­tributes to the grow­ing prob­lem. [3]

Damaged Skin Barrier – A Pathway to Cross-Contamination 

One of the most con­cern­ing con­se­quences of a dam­aged skin bar­ri­er is the increased risk of cross-con­t­a­m­i­na­tion. The skin serves as a nat­ur­al pro­tec­tive bar­ri­er against pathogens, and when dam­aged, it pro­vides an entry point for bac­te­ria, virus­es, and fun­gi. Nurs­es and doc­tors who suf­fer from skin irri­ta­tions and micro-injuries on their hands are three times more like­ly to car­ry mul­ti-drug-resis­tant microor­gan­isms. These pathogens can be trans­mit­ted to patients, lead­ing to life-threat­en­ing hos­pi­tal-acquired infec­tions. Addi­tion­al­ly, the finan­cial aspect can­not be over­looked, as treat­ing infec­tion-relat­ed com­pli­ca­tions gen­er­ates sig­nif­i­cant costs for the health­care system.[1]

Cross-con­t­a­m­i­na­tion is one of the most com­mon threats in med­ical facil­i­ties and presents a seri­ous chal­lenge for mod­ern med­i­cine. Stud­ies pub­lished in the “Jour­nal of the Amer­i­can Acad­e­my of Der­ma­tol­ogy” clear­ly demon­strate that a dam­aged skin bar­ri­er sig­nif­i­cant­ly increas­es this risk.[1]

Straty finansowe związane z absencją chorobową 

Hand skin irri­ta­tions not only affect work com­fort but can also lead to sick leave. Health­care work­ers suf­fer­ing from chron­ic skin prob­lems are often forced to take breaks from work to treat their con­di­tions. Accord­ing to research con­duct­ed by “Occu­pa­tion­al Med­i­cine,” sick leave due to skin issues can cost hos­pi­tals thou­sands of zło­ty annu­al­ly [3]. The peak of sick leave relat­ed to skin prob­lems, accord­ing to ZUS data, occurs in the most pro­fes­sion­al­ly active age group, from 40 to 59 years old [4].

The absence of med­ical staff due to skin con­di­tions places addi­tion­al strain on oth­er employ­ees, which in turn can affect the qual­i­ty of patient care and gen­er­ate costs relat­ed to staffing replace­ments and addi­tion­al per­son­nel train­ing. Intro­duc­ing mod­ern solu­tions, such as gloves enriched with pro­tec­tive and regen­er­a­tive ingre­di­ents, can help reduce these loss­es and improve the health of the staff.

Oat extract – A Natural Solution for Healthy Hands 

One poten­tial solu­tion to help com­bat skin prob­lems is the use of med­ical gloves infused with oat extract. Oats (Ave­na sati­va) are well known for their excep­tion­al skin-care prop­er­ties, which can pro­vide relief to skin fre­quent­ly exposed to irri­tat­ing sub­stances. The mois­tur­iz­ing and sooth­ing effects of oat extract could help reduce irri­ta­tion, pro­mote heal­ing, and cre­ate a more com­fort­able expe­ri­ence for health­care work­ers, help­ing to pro­tect their hands while main­tain­ing high stan­dards of hygiene.

is rich in beta-glu­cans, which have mois­tur­iz­ing, sooth­ing, and regen­er­at­ing prop­er­ties. Clin­i­cal stud­ies have shown that reg­u­lar use of prod­ucts con­tain­ing oat extract sig­nif­i­cant­ly improves skin hydra­tion and reduces irri­ta­tion symp­toms. Addi­tion­al­ly, oats pos­sess nat­ur­al antiox­i­dant prop­er­ties that help pro­tect the skin from dam­age caused by free rad­i­cals, which is par­tic­u­lar­ly impor­tant in the con­text of pro­longed glove use. [5]

Potential Benefits of Oat Extract in Medical Gloves 

1. Łagodze­nie podrażnień

Oat extract is a nat­ur­al anti-inflam­ma­to­ry agent that soothes irri­ta­tions and reduces skin red­ness. For nurs­es and doc­tors who wear gloves for long hours, this is espe­cial­ly impor­tant as it helps alle­vi­ate dis­com­fort and reduce the risk of devel­op­ing more seri­ous skin issues. [5]

2. Naw­ilże­nie

Owies jest znany ze swoich właś­ci­woś­ci naw­ilża­ją­cych. Beta-glukany zawarte w wyciągu tworzą na skórze ochron­ny film, który zatrzy­mu­je wilgoć i zapo­b­ie­ga jej utra­cie, co jest kluc­zowe dla utrzy­ma­nia zdrowej skóry w warunk­ach pra­cy, które częs­to sprzy­ja­ją wysusza­niu naskórka.[5]

3. Regen­er­ac­ja skóry

Thanks to its con­tent of vit­a­mins and min­er­als, oats sup­port skin regen­er­a­tion by accel­er­at­ing the heal­ing process of minor wounds and micro-dam­ages to the epi­der­mis. Reg­u­lar use of gloves with oat extract can sig­nif­i­cant­ly improve the con­di­tion of the hands, even with inten­sive use. [5]

4. Ochrona antyoksy­da­cyj­na

Antyoksy­dan­ty zawarte w wyciągu z owsa poma­ga­ją neu­tral­i­zować wolne rod­ni­ki, które przyspiesza­ją pro­cesy starzenia się skóry. Dla per­son­elu medy­cznego, który codzi­en­nie naraża swo­je ręce na kon­takt z różny­mi chemikalia­mi, ochrona antyoksy­da­cyj­na jest dodatkowym atutem. Dzię­ki temu, skóra dłoni pozosta­je zdrowsza i bardziej odpor­na na uszkodzenia spowodowane czyn­nika­mi zewnętrznymi.[5]

Summary: The Need for Change

The issue of hand irri­ta­tions and skin con­di­tions among health­care work­ers is seri­ous and deserves greater atten­tion. Intro­duc­ing med­ical gloves infused with oat extract into wide­spread use could be a sig­nif­i­cant step toward improv­ing work­ing con­di­tions for nurs­es and doc­tors, there­by enhanc­ing the qual­i­ty of patient care. Prop­er under­stand­ing and address­ing of this issue are key to ensur­ing that health­care pro­fes­sion­als can per­form their duties in a safe, com­fort­able, and effec­tive man­ner.

Warto również pod­kreślić, że dzi­ała­nia prewen­cyjne i odpowied­nie środ­ki ochrony indy­wid­u­al­nej mogą znaczą­co wpłynąć na zmniejsze­nie absencji chorobowej oraz na obniże­nie kosztów związanych z zastępst­wa­mi i lecze­niem schorzeń skórnych per­son­elu medy­cznego. Inwest­owanie w nowoczesne rozwiąza­nia, takie jak rękaw­ice z dodatkiem wyciągu z owsa, nie tylko popraw­ia jakość życia i pra­cy pra­cown­ików, ale również przekła­da się na efek­ty­wność i jakość opie­ki medy­cznej.

*-niepub­likowane bada­nia własne auto­ra 

Bibliography: 

Hen­ning, M. A. S., Jemec, G. B., & Ibler, K. S. (2021). Occu­pa­tion­al skin dis­ease in physi­cians: A review of the lit­er­a­ture. Annals of Work Expo­sures and Health, 65(1), 11–25. doi: 10.1093/annweh/wxaa091

Epi­demi­ol­o­gy of occu­pa­tion­al der­matoses asso­ci­at­ed with per­son­al pro­tec­tive equip­ment use in the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic: Risk fac­tors and mit­i­ga­tion strate­gies for front­line health care work­ers. Jour­nal of the Amer­i­can Acad­e­my of Der­ma­tol­ogy. (2022). doi: 10.1016/j.jaad.2022.05.001

Quaade, A. S., Simon­sen, A. B., Halling, A. S., Thyssen, J. P., & Johansen, J. D. (2021). Preva­lence, risk fac­tors, and pre­ven­tion of occu­pa­tion­al con­tact der­mati­tis among pro­fes­sion­al clean­ers: a sys­tem­at­ic review. Inter­na­tion­al Archives of Occu­pa­tion­al and Envi­ron­men­tal Health, 84(6), 361–374. doi: 10.1007/s00420-021–01648‑3

Absenc­ja chorobowa w 2023 roku, Depar­ta­ment Statysty­ki i Prog­noz Aktu­ar­i­al­nych ZUS, opra­cow­anie: Ewa Kar­czewicz Agniesz­ka Siko­ra, Wydzi­ał Badań Statysty­cznych, źródło: https://www.zus.pl/documents/10182/39590/Absencja+chorobowa+w+2023+roku.pdf/57361117–44fc-4c48-ecad-82685bebdb32?t=1716895964320

Capone K, Kirch­n­er F, Klein SL, Tier­ney NK. Effects of Col­loidal Oat­meal Top­i­cal Atopic Der­mati­tis Cream on Skin Micro­bio­me and Skin Bar­ri­er Prop­er­ties. J Drugs Der­ma­tol. 2020 May 1;19(5):524–531. PMID: 324