title: Comparison of nitrile gloves and nitrile over Nomex gloves.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Aeromedical flight crews must perform many tasks in flight requiring manual dexterity and fine precision. A common perception is that safety-enhancing fire-retardant gloves compromise patient care if worn during such tasks by providing added bulk and barrier to the hand. This study is a quantitative and qualitative analysis of this possible compromise to patient care.
  
  
  METHODS
  Sixteen practicing flight nurses and respiratory therapists were asked to perform 10 different standard patient care tasks while wearing either nitrile gloves or a nitrile-Nomex glove pair. Tasks were timed, rated as completed successfully or not, and were subsequently judged subjectively by the participants.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Whereas the time required to insert an intravenous catheter and to insert a central line while wearing only nitrile gloves was significantly faster than when wearing both gloves, the time to perform all other tasks was not significantly different. In subjective ratings, the nitrile glove alone was scored significantly better than the two-glove combination by the study participants.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Comfort, dexterity, tactile discrimination, and ease of use were all adversely affected by wearing a Nomex glove under a nitrile glove. Although the differences in times for most tasks may not be clinically significant, the difference in the subjective parameters may be great enough to cause helicopter emergency medical services (HEMS) practitioners to not wear Nomex gloves under nitrile gloves while performing procedures.
authors.affiliation: University of Connecticut School of Medicine, Farmington, CT, USA.
authors.forename: Deirdre Cronin
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Vorih
authors.forename: Lauri D
authors.initials: LD
authors.lastname: Bolton
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Marcelynas
authors.forename: Thomas A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Nowicki
authors.forename: Lenworth
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Jacobs
authors.forename: Kenneth J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Robinson
mesh_terms: D017732:Air Ambulances; D003258:Consumer Behavior; D020724:Elastomers; D017575:Gloves, Protective / Q000592:standards*; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006801:Humans; D005791:Patient Care; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis
chemical_list: D020724:Elastomers; C086285:nitrile butyl rubber