Healthcare Worker Experiences with a Universal Gloving Intervention to Prevent Clostridioides difficile Infection: A Qualitative Study.

Background: Universal gloving (healthcare worker gloving for all patient contact regardless of activity or patient condition) may prevent Clostridioides difficile transmission in healthcare settings. However, healthcare worker experiences with universal gloving practices are needed to understand if and how universal gloving programs may be successfully implemented for infection prevention.

Methods: As part of a cluster randomized clinical trial in Veterans Affairs inpatient units to evaluate the efficacy and acceptability of a universal gloving intervention in preventing C. difficile acquisition among patients, we interviewed healthcare workers on intervention units regarding their experience with the intervention.

Results: Participants reported their experience with implementing universal gloving as well as impacts to nursing workload and workflow, patient care, and hand hygiene. They also described barriers and facilitators to universal gloving.

Discussion: Universal gloving is relatively straightforward to implement as an infection prevention strategy. However, barriers, including increased time for tasks, need for cross-disciplinary communication, and glove availability and accessibility, must be addressed.

Conclusions: Human factors and systems engineering methods may be useful in supporting universal gloving interventions. Additional evidence demonstrating efficacy of the intervention is also needed to support future implementations.