Ogg. "I encourage people to try different combinations."
Your 2 pairs of gloves need not be the same size. Try out different
size combinations, and you'll start to get a better sense of what works
best for your team. If your facility changes glove manufacturers, you'll
need to go through the process again.
"Give it a fair chance to get that right fit and get used to that fit," says
Ms. Ogg.
You add another level of safety when you wear a colored pair of
gloves underneath a standard pair of gloves, says Ms. Ogg.
"Wearing a colored glove underneath, as soon as you get even a tiny
pin prick in your glove, it's very visible that you have it," says Ms. Ogg.
"You know there's a breach in your glove."
A surgical approach
It's good to have policies that encourage double-gloving. But if you
want to see a change at your facility, you'll need buy-in from your sur-
geons, says Dr. Jagger.
"If the surgeon doesn't want to do it, nobody in the operating room
gets the benefit," says Dr. Jagger. "The surgeons are, for the most part,
in control of all of the safety devices and protocols in the OR. If the
surgeon doesn't want to double-glove, the surgeon won't double-
glove."
Many times, wearing 2 gloves comes down to a personal choice. The
good news is more and more surgeons, particularly younger ones, see
double-gloving as an essential part of safety in the OR. As time goes on,
Dr. Berguer expects the trend to continue.
"I think there's more acceptance now that we should use these safe-
ty measures in every case and not just the high-risk cases," says Dr.
Berguer.
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