Just to change gears a bit, we were talking about infection control practices in hospitals. I worked in an emergency department for 20 years. I also used to be an EMS medical director.
One of the problems we find is that many people in health care settings use gloves universally, literally every time they touch a patient. I spoke with Dr. Pierre Plourde, an ID, infectious disease, specialist with the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority. Apparently, when health care workers wear gloves, every time they touch a patient they use it as a substitute for handwashing, and you actually get increased infections, yet when I am working with hospital staff in EMS, we cannot get that message through to them, and they're still always wearing gloves.
As part of infection control in hospitals, are there any initiatives to educate health care staff on the proper use of gloves and how not to use them as a substitute for handwashing?