Hands-On or Gloved Approach? Unveiling Patient Experiences in Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Clinics

BackgroundLiterature suggests that patients view medical examination gloves as often overused and opportunities for cross-contamination. Little research focuses on the patient's perception of their surgeon when performing a physical examination in a clinic with or without medical examination gloves. The purpose of this project was to determine patient preference for glove use during foot and ankle examinations.MethodsA cross-sectional survey was conducted in a Foot and Ankle Orthopaedic Clinic, with 99 out of 100 patients participating (99% response rate). Participants, 53 patient's female (59.5%) and 36 male (40.4%) answered 8 questions on glove utilization, scored on a Likert scale (Appendix A). Descriptive statistics, data normalcy, and significance tests were used to analyze glove utilization (yes/no), gender, and age group, at P < .05 significance. The primary outcome examined patient preference for glove use during exams, while secondary outcomes assessed perceived thoroughness and provider approachability.ResultsAmong 89 patients (59.5% female, 40.4% male, mean age ~55), glove use was reported in 75 surveys and was more common with male patients (33.3% vs 9.43%, P = .059). Males were slightly more agreeable to preferring no gloves (2.86 vs 3.17, P = .134). Patients with physicians who wore gloves vs those without gloves during the encounter were more congenial to glove use for themselves (2.50 vs 3.24, P = .001) and for others (2.21 vs 3.00, P< .001), respectively. Patients preferred glove use for wound exams. Gender, glove use, or age did not influence perceptions of examination thoroughness (1.61) or provider approachability (3.32).ConclusionGlove use did not negatively impact patient perception of physical examination thoroughness or personability onto their physician. The results suggest that glove use may be up to the provider's discretion without concern for seeming less personable to patients or affecting patient perception of examination thoroughness.Levels of Evidence:Level IV.