with Rose Gallagher
Role: UK Professionals Lead Sustainability at the Royal College of Nursing.
What was the initiative/action, and in what setting was the project implemented?
The initiative, known as Glove Awareness Week, was developed to raise awareness of both the appropriate use of gloves and the risks associated with wearing them when they are not required under UK legislation for health care worker protection.
The campaign was first piloted in hospital inpatient areas and later expanded to adult care homes. As a professional body rather than a direct service provider, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) ensured that its role and resources aligned with its responsibility to influence professional nursing practice, advocate for workplace protections, and promote patient and public safety.
The RCN made a deliberate strategic choice to focus on targeted awareness-raising rather than launch a large-scale quality improvement framework. Resources were directed toward practical guidance and connected with other high-profile priorities, including skin health, hand hygiene, and waste reduction. The initial rollout relied heavily on poster campaigns in inpatient wards before expanding into adult care home settings.
Did you have any collaborators? If so, who were they?
The initiative brought together a diverse group of collaborators, drawing heavily on the RCN’s combined role as both a trade union and professional nursing organization. Participants included health, safety, and wellbeing representatives working within NHS hospitals who promoted the campaign directly with employers.
The campaign also engaged occupational health experts, including specialists in occupational skin disease. Their involvement built on previous RCN work highlighting increased self-reported cases of work-related dermatitis. Commercial partners provided financial sponsorship and contributed to the development of campaign resources.
Rose led the project and worked closely with internal RCN colleagues, external health, safety, and wellbeing leads, and other professional stakeholders. She also helped ensure that infection prevention and environmental sustainability were central to the campaign’s messaging.
Who did they have to engage with to get the project moving?
The campaign developed from the RCN guidance Tools of the Trade. One of its primary goals was to raise awareness of dermatitis among nurses, particularly the effects of prolonged glove use and exposure to chemicals, disinfectants, and certain medications on skin health.
The campaign focused on glove use because available data indicated that gloves were frequently worn in situations where they were not required under standard health and safety guidance. Although the team initially aimed simply to raise awareness, frontline nurses embraced the campaign’s messages and goals more enthusiastically than expected.
What challenges or obstacles did they encounter?
A central challenge was ensuring that the initiative remained aligned with the RCN’s organizational role while also meeting the diverse needs of its members.
The work was supported by findings from the RCN’s 2020 skin health survey, which showed that work-related skin conditions significantly affected the wellbeing and productivity of the nursing workforce. Evidence also suggested that women with children under age five were more likely to experience hand dermatitis. Combined with nurses’ exposure to workplace irritants, wet work, and skin overhydration caused by prolonged glove use, these findings highlighted the significant risk of occupational skin disease.
Members also shared accounts of nurses, particularly surgical nurses, experiencing skin damage so severe that they were forced to take extended leave or leave the profession entirely.
The team had to ensure that campaign resources were concise, clear, and suitable for posters and formal guidance. The materials also needed to align closely with established infection prevention and control principles.
Another challenge was addressing differences in glove-use expectations across clinical settings. For example, intravenous drug administration was often viewed as automatically requiring gloves, although gloves are not necessary in every circumstance. The campaign therefore had to challenge common misconceptions and clearly explain when gloves were and were not legally or clinically required.
What was the result of the initiative/action?
During the campaign’s pilot week, the team used posters, social media content, and large custom photo frames to encourage staff participation. These visual resources helped staff share the campaign with colleagues in a natural and engaging way within their own workplaces.
The approach generated widespread participation, with staff taking campaign photos in hospital canteens, at study days, at reception desks, and alongside chief nurses. The interactive and lighthearted elements helped balance the seriousness of the message while encouraging staff to discuss the risks associated with inappropriate glove use.
The campaign’s messaging was organized around a three-part framework connecting environmental sustainability, infection prevention and control, and skin health. This framework allowed glove use to serve as an entry point for broader clinical conversations about waste reduction, occupational health, long-term skin protection, and safer workplace practices.
What advice would you give to a nurse interested in developing a similar initiative?
Do not underestimate the amount of preparation required to run a local glove-awareness campaign, even on a small scale. A significant part of that preparation involves listening carefully to the concerns and experiences of frontline staff rather than introducing a top-down directive.
The most successful local campaigns were often not led directly by infection prevention and control teams. Instead, clinical education teams and frontline clinical leaders helped promote and embed the campaign at the patient-care level. Because some clinical relationships are still being rebuilt following the pandemic, trusted clinical leaders may have a stronger influence on frontline behavior than a campaign framed solely as an infection prevention initiative.
Co-producing posters, guidance, and other resources with staff was also critical. This collaborative approach helped ensure that the materials used familiar, accessible language rather than overly technical terminology. It also brought different perspectives into the campaign and recognized that staff process information in different ways, including through highly visual materials.
