Types of PPE
Many different types of PPE are used in a healthcare setting. Let’s take a closer look.
Gloves
Wearing gloves protects your hands from infectious material and helps reduce the spread of germs. They create a barrier between infectious material and your hands. Healthcare workers should wear gloves every time they anticipate the potential to come in contact with blood, bodily fluids, bodily tissues, mucous membranes, or broken skin. Make sure to wear gloves for this sort of contact, even if a patient seems healthy and has no signs of any germs.
Choosing the Right Type of Gloves
Containers of disposable gloves should be available in any room or area where patient care occurs.
Gloves come in different sizes, so make sure you choose the right size for a good fit.
- If the gloves are too big, it is hard to hold objects and easier for infectious material to get inside your gloves.
- Gloves that are too small are more likely to rip.
Some cleaning and care procedures require sterile or surgical gloves. Sterile means "free from germs." These gloves come in numbered sizes (5.5 to 9). Know your size ahead of time.
If you will be handling chemicals, check the safety data sheet to see what kind of gloves you will need. Some glove materials do not effectively block chemicals from passing through and contacting the skin.
DO NOT use oil-based hand creams or lotions unless they are approved for use with latex gloves.
If you have a latex allergy, use non-latex gloves and avoid contact with other products that contain latex. (See OSHAcademy course 170 Healthcare: Latex Allergy for more detailed information on latex allergies.)
Removing Gloves
When you take gloves off, make sure the outsides of the gloves do not touch your bare hands. Follow these steps:
- Using your left hand, grab the outer side of your right glove at the wrist.
- Pull toward your fingertips. The glove will turn inside out.
- Hold onto the empty glove with your left hand.
- Put 2 right-hand fingers in your left glove.
- Pull toward your fingertips until you have pulled the glove inside out and off your hand. The right glove will now be inside the left glove.
- Throw the gloves away in an approved waste container.
Always use new gloves for each patient. Wash your hands between patients to avoid passing germs.
Knowledge Check Choose the best answer for the question.
1-4. Why is it important to wear gloves that are the correct size for your hands?
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