With the cold weather and high winds of the last few weeks, many people will be experiencing redness and soreness on the skin of the hands. A bit of hand cream and wearing marigolds to do the dishes (or even better delegating dishwashing to someone else to do!) can usually be enough to repair the skin, but it’s not so easy for those in nursing or midwifery roles where you can quickly develop work related dermatitis of the hands.
Frequent handwashing, exposure to chemicals and irritants such as disinfectants and even chemicals found in examination gloves (known as accelerators) can cause and make problems worse. If the skin on the hands doesn’t have time to heal it can lead to cracks and fissures forming which can become infected and be extremely painful. It can also present an infection risk to the patients you are caring for as sore hands prevent thorough hand hygiene. In some cases, nursing and midwifery staff may need to take time off work for their skin to heal and in extreme cases may not be able to return to clinical practice roles, adding to the already high nursing vacancy rates and the staffing crisis.
There is a lack of accurate and recent data around the extent of the problem in nursing and intelligence on what steps organisations are taking to protect nursing staff from the risks, as they are legally required to. For example, organisations should be carrying out regular skin checks of nurses’ hands to identify early signs and symptoms and providing hand cream in the workplace, but we know from speaking to our members this is often lacking.
To this end, the RCN, in collaboration with SC Johnson Professional, has launched a survey to establish the incidence of work-related dermatitis in nursing and midwifery staff and what employing organisations are doing to prevent and manage the condition.
The survey results will be presented during the RCN’s annual glove awareness week at the end of April 2020 and will form the basis of our calls for action to health and social care employers to do more to recognise the issue and protect nursing and midwifery staff.
Please complete the survey and encourage colleagues to respond. The more responses we get the stronger our evidence and the stronger our messages can be.
It is open to all nursing staff and will remain live until 11pm on Sunday 12 January 2020.
You can find more information of Glove Awareness Week and links to our resources on the RCN website.
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