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Glove Awareness Week: Make one change

Are you glove aware?

Following Glove Awareness Week we’re asking you to remain ‘glove aware’ throughout the year, and to adopt the changes you made during the week to reduce your unnecessary glove use permanently, making health care more sustainable.

When used correctly, medical gloves are a vital part of personal protective equipment (PPE). But there are many occasions when gloves are not needed and hand hygiene is completely effective in protecting you and your patients.

Nursing staff can be reassured that hand hygiene is a highly effective way of protecting yourself from viruses such as COVID-19, which means you can reduce glove use safely when they are not required. 

Why this matters

Gloves are one of the most common single-use plastic items in health care. Between 25 February 2020 and 24 February 2021, 5.5 billion gloves were used in the NHS and social care in England alone. By making one change to reduce unnecessary glove use we can help make health care more sustainable.

Watch this video with RCN Deputy President Tracy Budding for more information.

Stop. Think. Make One Change.  

Our animation explores the environmental impact of unnecessary examination glove use and provides helpful tips to help you to reduce glove waste and make health care more sustainable.

Share the video on social media and with your networks to help us spread the word.

Read more about glove awareness

• Read our RCN Magazines article about the role you can take to reduce unnecessary glove use and why this is important.

• Watch our video from Deputy President Tracy Budding and learn why Glove Awareness Week is so important

Resources for your workplace

We have designed some simple resources for you to use in your workplace and online to raise awareness of appropriate glove use. These include posters, a leaflet, social media downloads and a Teams background.

Healthy hand hygiene

Glove Awareness Week 2022 coincided with World Hand Hygiene Day on 5 May.

Good hand hygiene is a vital aspect of nursing, but frequent hand hygiene can lead to and exacerbate dry skin issues including dermatitis.

Our toolkit and guidance on skin health gives you all the information you need to keep both your hands and patients safe.  

In collaboration with:

Molnlycke

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