Infection prevention and control - Royal Marsden Manual of Clinical ...

Procedure guideline 3.3 Putting on and removing non-sterile gloves
Essential equipment
■ Non-sterile gloves
Preprocedure
Infection prevention and control
Action Rationale
1 Clean hands before putting on gloves. Hands must be cleansed before and after every patient contact
or contact with patient’s equipment ( Pratt et al. 2007 , C ).
Procedure
2 Remove gloves from the box singly (see Action Figure 2 ),
to prevent contamination of the gloves lower down. If it
is likely that more than two gloves will be required (i.e. if
the procedure requires gloves to be changed part-way
through), consider removing all the gloves needed before
starting the procedure.
3 Holding the cuff of the glove, pull it into position, taking
care not to contaminate the glove from the wearer’s skin
(see Action Figure 3 ). This is particularly important when
the second glove is being put on, as the gloved hand of
the fi rst glove can touch the skin of the ungloved second
hand if care is not taken.
4 During the procedure or when undertaking two procedures
with the same patient, it may be necessary to change
gloves. Gloves are single-use items and must not be
cleansed and reused.
5 If gloves become damaged during use they must be
replaced.
6 Remove the gloves when the procedure is completed,
taking care not to contaminate the hands or the
environment from the outside of the gloves.
7 Remove the fi rst glove by fi rmly holding the outside of
the glove wrist and pulling off the glove in such a way
as to turn it inside out (see Action Figure 7 ).
8 Remove the second glove by slipping the fi ngers of the
ungloved hand inside the wrist of the glove and pulling
it off whilst at the same time turning it inside out (see
Action Figure 8 ).
Postprocedure
9 Dispose of used gloves as ‘hazardous infectious waste’
(see Action Figure 9 ), that is, into an orange waste bag,
unless instructed otherwise by the infection prevention
and control team.
To prevent cross-contamination. E
To prevent cross-contamination. E
Disposable gloves are single-use items. They cannot
be cleaned and reused for the same or another patient
( MHRA 2006, C ).
Damaged gloves are not an effective barrier. E
The outside of the glove may be contaminated. E
Whilst removing the fi rst glove, the second gloved hand continues
to be protected. By turning the glove inside out during
removal, any contamination is contained inside the glove. E
By putting the fi ngers inside the glove, they will not be in
contact with the potentially contaminated outer surface of
the glove. E
All waste contaminated with blood, body fl uids, excretions,
secretions and infectious agents thought to pose a particular
risk should be disposed of as hazardous infectious waste.
Orange is the recognized colour for hazardous infectious
waste that does not require incineration and may be made
safe by alternative treatment ( DH 2006a , C ).
10 After removing the gloves, decontaminate your hands. Hands may have become contaminated ( Pratt et al. 2007 , C ).
(Continued)
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