Nurse didnt wear gloves??

[Lila88]

Hi there. I'm aware i might sound a bit paranoid but just seeking for advice/opinions here.
I'm 14 weeks pregnant and today I went to get my bloods done.
The nurse or lab assistant didn't wear gloves during the extraction and she tapped my vein with her fingers just before the puncture. She did not put alcohol on the area after she touched my skin with her bare hands and didnt see her using gel beforehand. I did tell her afterwards but she said it was ok????
Worried about her hands not being clean and the possibility of a transmited infection.

@Ozanj

Going without gloves is more hygienic and is recommended because back in the day most hospitals / surgeries didn’t supply enough sterile gloves & so some nurses / doctors etc were wearing the same gloves all day.

This is wrong - gloves are supposed to be worn - Ime it’s only older nurses who don’t asxwernt taught with gloves so they complain they can’t feel the veins with gloves on.

We don't wear gloves and never use Alco wipes either as per protocol unless the skin is visibly dirty. There is more potential harm not waiting for the two minutes for it to dry thoroughly before gene puncture, which most nurses don't have time to do tbh anyway. It wouldn't happen. This has been local policy for us for a very long time.

*venepuncture

I think that given your anxiety, which is understanding given what you have verb through, that your midwife will be very understanding if you ask at the time, no matter how silly you think it might sound.

I don't wear gloves, I have clean hands and gloves don't prevent/protect against a needlestick injury.

Our local policy is also no cleaning of the skin unless it's visible dirty or contaminated, it's not necessary. It's a sterile needle, and a no touch technique and your own skin flora so negligible infection risk.

IME nurses/phlebotomists will wear gloves and skin swab for venepuncture in high risk areas such as oncology, and skin is cleaned before blood donation rather than routine venepuncture.

@TheSnowyOwl. Thanks, i will defo ask her next time i see her.
@Sidge but she did touch my skin. She tapped my vein before the puncture. And she had touched other things beforehand. She did not use gel before that. She might have used gel after the previous patient left. But i dont know that. What i know is that she didnt put gel after touching pen, papers, and door handle. My skin was clean (its not an area that can get contaminated as its covered with clean clothes) Your hands its a different story. Cant that lead to bacteria/germs entering your body?? Im genuinely asking im no doctor or nurse. I know im might sound paranoid but its the first time i saw that.

Well I can’t speak for her, but I would have washed my hands before you came in. I wash my hands approximately 50 times a day and use gel intermittently too.

I say no touch in that she wouldn’t have touched the needle end, which broke the skin. Venepuncture isn’t a sterile procedure, just a clean one. So even though she’d touched your skin with (I imagine ) clean hands, the needle that then punctured the skin was sterile and the chance of introducing infection this way is negligible.

In 30 years of nursing I’ve never seen anyone get an infection after a routine blood test, if that’s any consolation.