About the project
Gloves Off! is a research project taking place in 2 trial wards at John Hunter Hospital to improve hand hygiene and reduce unnecessary non-sterile glove use.
Non-sterile gloves are commonly misused in clinical work, and healthcare workers are less likely to follow hand hygiene practices when wearing non-sterile gloves.
Glove overuse then leads to increased volume of avoidable waste sent to landfill.
Scale of non-sterile glove use across Hunter
- 28.3 million non-sterile gloves used annually
- 97 tonnes of gloves sent to landfill (includes disposal costs)
- Carbon footprint is equal to driving a fuel-efficient car around Australia 175 times.
Project details
The project aims to reduce unnecessary use of non-sterile gloves and staff should use the principles of 5 Moments for Hand Hygiene as a guide:
Gloves on | Gloves off |
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Project outcomes
- Improve hand hygiene compliance.
- Reduce unnecessary use of non-sterile gloves.
- Design and deliver a quality improvement package across our local health district.
- Improve healthcare staff’s confidence and understanding of performing risk assessments as a part of standard safety measures.