A recent publication in the American Journal of Infection Control suggests that improved gloving by healthcare workers does not necessarily translate into significant gains in hand hygiene compliance.
The authors assessed the impact of improving glove using on the hand hygiene (HH) compliance in a multicenter study . If gloves had been used correctly during the evaluation, the overall compliance with hand hygiene measured after contacts with patients or environment would have only increased from 66.3% to 68.7%.
Healthcare workers may simply feel that their hands do not become soiled or contaminated during patient care when donning gloves. There is a body of literature reporting that gloves, even when properly worn, can have micro-tears, allowing for HCW hand contamination.
We published a paper on universal gloving in 2007, where, during the universal gloving phase of the protocol, HCW adherence with hand hygiene decreased after patient contact.
Gloves are, without doubt, of use as personal protective equipment. Nevertheless, the message to me is clear, improving glove usage cannot be used as alternative to improving hand hygiene.
