Reducing non-sterile glove use in a sexual health and HIV department: A quality improvement project to address clinical practices

BackgroundClimate change is a huge public health threat, necessitating reductions in carbon emissions, particularly from single-use plastics like non-sterile gloves (NSG). This quality improvement project aims to explore whether use of targeted educational material changes staff attitudes towards NSG use in clinical practice within a Sexual Health and HIV department.MethodsA pre-intervention survey was circulated to all clinicians. Subsequently, various methods encouraged appropriate NSG use including video guidance of performing venepuncture without gloves in line with Trust policy, educational presentations, and patient-facing posters for waiting rooms. NSG procurement data were obtained, and a post-intervention survey evaluated whether NSG use had changed following the interventions.ResultsSixty-three percent of staff believed they had reduced their personal glove use in the past year. Many staff believed the best way to reduce inappropriate glove use was through education as well as empowering patients through posters. Glove procurement data comparing 2023/2024 to pre-COVID 2019/2020 showed a 45.2% decrease in NSG orders from 173,110 to 94,800 per year.ConclusionsStaff education is successful in reducing inappropriate NSG use, with patient posters and targeted staff presentations the most effective measures to drive behaviour change and therefore reduce NSG use.