Role of glove quality in maximising staff safety

Hand hygiene is a vital component in preventing the spread of micro-organisms that can cause infections in health and care settings.¹ Most of the time, hand hygiene using either alcohol-based handrubs (ABHRs) or hand washing using soap and water is adequate as an intervention to both a) prevent the spread of micro-organisms that can cause infections between patients and b) to protect healthcare providers from micro-organisms that could cause them harm.^{1, 2}

Gloves also form a vital part of the provision of safe and effective healthcare. Gloves are widely used in healthcare and are, along with hand hygiene, an important tool in preventing and combating healthcare-associated infections (HCAI), which currently represent one of the most common adverse events for patients undergoing healthcare. HCAI are a major public health burden.³ Gloves can be used, depending on the scenario, to protect patients from infectious micro-organisms originating on the hands of healthcare providers or to protect healthcare providers from exposure to infectious micro-organisms originating from patients or other service users.²

Achieving safe and effective hand hygiene practices, including the appropriate use of gloves, is very challenging to achieve in practice. Observational audit suggests that compliance with hand hygiene opportunities in health and care settings is far from 100%. A systematic review of observational hand hygiene studies found that compliance was, on average, 40%.⁴ While the methodology of observational audits of hand hygiene compliance varies, inappropriate use of gloves is undoubtedly responsible for a substantial number of missed opportunities for hand hygiene.⁵