Romantic history of the first hospital glove

Did you know… the first hospital gloves were invented for a nurse?

Gloves have a key role in Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) in hospitals and the wider community. As with hand washing the importance of hands in spreading disease and infection hasn’t always been known.

The first hospital gloves were actually invented for a nurse.

The story goes that medical folks hands (especially nurses) were becoming cracked and damaged with excessive washing and powerful chemicals.

One such nurse was Caroline Hampton who worked in Baltimore with the surgeon William Halsted. When Hampton complained in early 1890 about the dermatitis she was getting on her hand Halsted worked with the Goodyear rubber company to develop gloves.

The two were married in June of 1890, shortly after he presented her with two pairs of rubber gloves made to fit plaster casts of her hands!

Gloves soon became common place in hospitals and in 1894 Lister began sterilising gloves which were worn by all surgeons.

Latex gloves, that we are familiar with today, were not invented until 1964.