Fundamentals of Nursing Care: Why Gloves Don't Replace Handwashing
The everyday science of bedside care: infection control, vital signs, safety, skin, movement, elimination, sleep, pain and the care plan.
Try 3 questions
1. In the 1840s, Ignaz Semmelweis sharply cut deaths among new mothers in Vienna by having doctors do what?
- Wash their hands in chlorinated lime
- Boil all of the bed linens daily
- Open the ward windows every morning
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Answer: Wash their hands in chlorinated lime
Doctors coming from autopsies carried infection to women in labor; hand antisepsis cut childbed fever deaths dramatically, though colleagues resisted.
2. When hands are not visibly dirty, why is an alcohol-based hand rub often preferred over soap and water?
- It destroys every germ, including spores
- It kills most germs faster and takes less time
- It removes visible dirt better than soap
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Answer: It kills most germs faster and takes less time
Alcohol rubs kill most bacteria and viruses within seconds and are easier to use at the bedside, which raises compliance.
3. After caring for a patient with Clostridioides difficile diarrhea, why must nurses wash with soap and water instead of alcohol rub?
- Alcohol does not kill its spores
- Soap contains a targeted antibiotic
- Alcohol helps the bacteria spread faster
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Answer: Alcohol does not kill its spores
The bacterium forms tough spores that survive alcohol, so friction and rinsing are needed to physically remove them.
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