Guidelines for Using Single-Use Gloves

lic. rat. med. Jerzy A. Kozłows­ki

Sin­gle-use gloves are the basic pro­tec­tion against con­t­a­m­i­nants and dis­ease-caus­ing agents that can be trans­mit­ted through the hands. They serve as an effec­tive bar­ri­er, but only when cer­tain guide­lines for glove usage are fol­lowed. Know­ing how to prop­er­ly use gloves is rel­e­vant not only for health­care work­ers but also in every­day life, espe­cial­ly dur­ing the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic.

Do gloves provide sufficient protection?

It may seem that wear­ing sin­gle-use gloves is suf­fi­cient, but this false sense of secu­ri­ty pos­es a sig­nif­i­cant risk. Fail­ure to adhere to hygiene and safe­ty guide­lines can make gloves a car­ri­er of infec­tions because we tend to be less cau­tious while using them.

Sin­gle-use gloves whether latex, nitrile, or vinyl, are pri­mar­i­ly designed to pro­tect the per­son wear­ing them – they are part of pro­tec­tive cloth­ing. They do not replace hand higiene  [1], con­duct­ed through wash­ing or dis­in­fec­tion, and should not be a basis for dis­re­gard­ing safe­ty mea­sures.

To ensure that sin­gle-use gloves pro­vide effec­tive pro­tec­tion, they should be worn when­ev­er there is a rea­son­able prob­a­bil­i­ty of com­ing into con­tact with poten­tial­ly infec­tious mate­r­i­alGloves should be changed after con­tact with con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed sur­faces or objects and should not be reused [1]. Dur­ing this time, one should refrain from touch­ing the face and oth­er uncov­ered parts of the body.

Read also When should gloves be worn?

Some­times, con­t­a­m­i­na­tion or the trans­fer of infec­tious mate­r­i­al to the skin can occur dur­ing the process of putting on gloves. There­fore, to ensure effec­tive pro­tec­tion, it is impor­tant to know how to use gloves.

Single-Use Gloves – Rules for Putting On and Taking Of

To main­tain clean­li­ness and avoid con­t­a­m­i­nat­ing either the skin or the gloves, it’s essen­tial to wash your hands thor­ough­ly with soap and water or use a hand san­i­tiz­er before putting on gloves. Then, remove a glove from its pack­ag­ing, hold­ing it by the cuff (where the wrist should be) and slide it onto one hand in a smooth, con­tin­u­ous motion. Try not to touch any oth­er parts of the glove, espe­cial­ly the fin­gers, with your bare hands. After­ward, remove the sec­ond glove, turn­ing the out­er cuff part inside out, and put it on the oth­er hand [2].

Image source:

Chief San­i­tary Inspec­torate

While wear­ing gloves, do not touch your face or exposed areas of your body. After com­plet­ing a task, dis­pose of them in the appro­pri­ate waste con­tain­er. To safe­ly remove gloves, grasp the cuff with your fin­gers at the wrist lev­el to avoid touch­ing your skin. Then, peel it off, turn­ing it inside out. Hold the removed glove in your still-gloved hand, insert your bare fin­gers under the glove, and with one motion, roll it off from the inside [2].

Jeżeli rękaw­ice miały kon­takt z krwią lub pły­na­mi ustro­jowy­mi, należy je wyrzu­cić do pojem­ni­ka na odpady skażone. W przy­pad­ku zwykłego użytkowa­nia rękaw­icz­ki, gdzie ochrona doty­czyła miejsc nieskażonych bio­log­icznie, rękaw­icz­ki moż­na wyrzu­cić do kosza na odpady.

After remov­ing the gloves, wash your hands with run­ning water or dis­in­fect them with an anti­sep­tic solu­tion.

The process of putting on ster­ile dis­pos­able gloves is some­what more com­plex and requires prop­er pre­cau­tions. The tech­nique for putting on ster­ile dis­pos­able gloves is shown in the illus­tra­tion below [1].

Image source:

Wyty­czne WHO doty­czące higieny rąk w opiece zdrowot­nej – pod­sumowanie” ©World Health Orga­ni­za­tion 2009 s.15

cmj.org.pl/clean-care/higiena-rak-wytyczne-who-draft.pdf

Gloves Safety Guidelines

  • After remov­ing sin­gle-use pro­tec­tive gloves, they must not be reused.
  • Gloves should be used in any sit­u­a­tion where it is nec­es­sary and rea­son­able. This is espe­cial­ly impor­tant dur­ing the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic, as restric­tions require main­tain­ing spe­cial hygiene mea­sures when touch­ing pub­lic sur­faces such as door­knobs, handrails, shelves, gro­ceries in stores, but­tons, etc. [3].
  • Gloves are only iso­lat­ing mate­r­i­al, so it is impor­tant to be aware that microor­gan­isms and bio­log­i­cal con­t­a­m­i­nants may be present on their sur­face.
  • Use gloves in the appro­pri­ate size, made of mate­r­i­al that pro­vides effec­tive pro­tec­tion and is non-aller­genic. Latex or nitrile gloves are com­mon. Do you know how to choose gloves??
  • Fol­low the man­u­fac­tur­er’s instruc­tions and rec­om­men­da­tions.

Bib­li­og­ra­phy:

1. Wyty­czne WHO doty­czące higieny rąk w opiece zdrowot­nej – pod­sumowanie” ©World Health Orga­ni­za­tion 2009 WHO/IER/PSP/2009.07;

2. Główny Inspek­torat San­i­tarny, Koron­awirus – jak praw­idłowo nałożyć rękaw­ice (03.04.2020);

3. Ser­wis Rzeczy­pospo­litej Pol­skiej gov.pl, Koron­awirus – infor­ma­c­je i zalece­nia (31.03.2020);