Approximately 1,000 health care workers develop work-related contact dermatitis of the hands – a painful, debilitating condition which may require nursing staff to be moved out of clinical areas due to the risk of infection.
Work-related contact dermatitis can be caused by frequent exposure to water, cleaning agents and inappropriate glove use.
Over or under use of gloves can put you at risk of work-related contact dermatitis. Inappropriate glove use can also prevent effective hand hygiene and can put your patient at risk of infection.
Before carrying out a task it's important to carry out a risk assessment to decide whether a glove is required, and if so, which type of glove is needed.
It's important to remember that gloves are single use items - they must be removed and changed between each patient or care task.
