Why Should Health Care Workers Wear Medical Gloves?

What are the uses for medical gloves? What is the importance of health workers wearing surgical gloves? This article will talk about the use of medical gloves by health workers. After reading the article, you can read more about why it is best to wear gloves for medical workers during the COVID-19 period.  

Why Medical Workers Should Wear Medical Gloves 

Medical gloves are meant to prevent the spread of the viral infection. Health workers should wear surgical gloves to keep both their patients and themselves safe from the spread of the virus. The good news is that COVID-19 is not airborne. One cannot get the virus by standing in the same room and breathing the same air as a person infected with the virus. That does not make it any less deadly. This is why health workers should wear exam gloves or medical gloves to prevent the virus from being able to transmit itself from one person to another. 

Medical Gloves Should Not Be Worn Permanently 

However, medical gloves should not be worn permanently. When a medical worker is conducting a medical exam, the exam gloves or medical gloves should be worn, but if the medical professional will do other tasks, such as write reports, go on the computer to look at patient files or even to answer calls on their personal cellphone, they must remove the medical gloves. 

If they keep the exam gloves (that were used to examine patients already) on, they will further increase the risk of spreading the virus and other types of microbes and bacteria. There is no way to see if the medical gloves have already been contaminated by any Covid-19 droplets or by other bacteria, at least not with the naked eye, at least. This is why medical workers should only wear medical exam gloves during a patient exam. They should also make sure to change their medical exam gloves frequently, especially after dealing with blood or other bodily fluids from patients. 

Keep in mind that dirty gloves will have an even larger chance of spreading the virus and other harmful bacteria that can cause serious illnesses and diseases in comparison to not wearing gloves at all.  

How To Keep Safe From COVID-19 

The key to keep the virus at bay is to make sure that you practice social distancing, handwashing and wear masks. Health workers should wear gloves even if the patient looks perfectly healthy. The use of medical exam gloves will protect both the medical worker and the patient from the virus.

However, it is important to note that there is a bigger possibility of contaminating others (and getting contaminated yourself) if you wear just one set of dirty medical exam gloves for the entire day. It may be counter-intuitive for everybody if the medical exam gloves are permanently worn. There is a false sense of safety when it comes to wearing gloves, that even some people who do not work in the medical field have taken to wearing medical gloves, even if they do not deal with patients. 

Remember that wearing gloves will not protect you from COVID-19. The best way to protect yourself if through prevention techniques. Making sure you wash your hands, do not touch your face (especially after holding money or coming from the outside and wearing a mask if you are coughing will keep the virus at bay and prevent the pandemic from getting worse than it already is.  

Final Thoughts 

Medical workers and their patients will benefit the medical professionals themselves as well as their patients, family members and anyone who comes into contact with them.