DAY ONE. Snap! Following a weekend of home repairs, my hands are covered with tiny cuts and scrapes. I fail the alcohol test at work on Monday morning, experiencing intense stinging while using hand sanitizer. Grumbling, I check the supply closet for gloves. There is a box of smalls in vinyl. I grab them.
My first patient is a “regular,” with whom I’ve never worn gloves before. I explain why I am using gloves today. I apply my usual go-to lubricant, a luscious Biotone cream. The cream instantly becomes a mess on the patient’s skin, and I end up wiping a lot of it off with a towel. I am a slow learner, but by the fourth patient, lesson number one occurs to me.
- When using gloves for massage, choose lotion. It spreads better. Most hospices provide individual lotion bottles at the bedside. They aren’t great products typically, but . . . they work much better with gloves than a thicker lubricant.
DAY TWO. In spite of the superior workability, the lotion at the inpatient unit still feels disappointing to me (and, I assume, to the patients). It feels runny. And blah. By mid-morning, I discover lesson number two.
- Warm the lotion to make it more special. I used my electric lunch warmer (see our Facebook post on the Hot Logic Mini Oven). The patients all begin to say “ooooo” and “ahhhhhh.”
DAY THREE. At the bottom of the supply closet, I spy a single box of nitrile gloves. They are a size small. They are a stunning bright blue. I decide to give them a try. Which led to lesson number three.
- Use nitrile gloves if you can. Omg, I could feel so much more with nitrile than vinyl: the heat of the warmed lotion and the fragile tissue under my fingers. By day three, I was beginning to enjoy this experiment.
DAY FOUR. The fit of the gloves is okay for me, but definitely not snug. I felt it could be better. So I read the entire box of nitrile gloves and learned there is a size extra small. Quantity of 100 for $24 from Kimberly Clark. I ordered them. Lesson number four . . .
- Get the tightest fit that feels comfortable. If you have small hands, a size small might not be small enough.
DAY FIVE. My cuts are almost healed, and this will likely be the last day of my little experiment. One lesson to sum things up?
- Wearing gloves is perfectly fine, and the patients did not care at all. On Day One, I felt a need to explain to the patients why I was using gloves. By the final day, I realized that it did not matter – at all – to folks on the receiving end of the massage. I stopped saying anything by Day Five. No one asked. No one seemed to notice.
I look forward to resuming massage without gloves next week. But I’ll keep my extra small nitriles handy. Next time I need to use gloves, I’ll be armed with lessons that will improve the experience, for the patients and for me.
Questions? Comments? We would LOVE to hear from you!
cindy@finaltouchtraining.com; susan@finaltouchtraining.com
