Basic First Aid: Using Rubber Gloves to Treat a Patient

Video Transcript

"Hi my name is Amy, and we are discussing protecting yourself from providing care to someone who may be bleeding severely and protecting yourself from bodily fluids. You want to treat all blood and body fluids as if they are infected even if you know the individual you are providing care for who may be bleeding severely or has vomited possibly. So it is good to put on a pair of gloves before you start providing any type of first aid care. If you don’t have gloves, you can always use a barrier between you and the victim’s body fluids such as a T-shirt or a towel. What you want to avoid are things like tissue paper and paper towels that can tear easily and stick to the wound. You also want to make sure that when you remove the gloves that you are careful to not touch the exterior of the gloves with your unprotected hands. So once you remove the glove, you gather it up inside the still protected hand and then you hook your finger off and underneath so that all fluids that may be on the exterior of the gloves are on the inside, and at that point, you want to wash your hands thoroughly after providing care. A thorough hand washing is about 30 seconds of vigorous rubbing under warm water with soap, and then you want to dry your hands with paper towels and dispose of them."