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Glove Effect on Hand Hygiene |
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Does gloving influence hand washing compliance? Although health care practitioners know that hands must be washed before and after gloves are used, and that wearing gloves is not a substitute for good hand hygiene, this can be a barrier to hand hygiene compliance. A Swiss hospital changed its policy on mandatory glove use for patients with contact precautions; after this requirement was removed, hand hygiene compliance increased 64%; most of this compliance improvement was before patient contact. This study, however, did not examine the policy changes' impact on infection rates, and current guidelines continue to recommend hand hygiene before and after gloving. The study does, however, elucidate the challenge that gloving brings to hand hygiene compliance.
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