Embodied Ethics of Mediated Touch: A Phenomenological Inquiry into the Nurse's Glove

For the nurse, whether in hospital, community, someone’s home, or almost every other healthcare setting, touching contact with the person in their care is inherent to nursing practices. Charged with the intimate and personal care of patients, the nurse’s touch is often mediated by thin, latex, disposable gloves that affect and shape the nurse’s touch. Yet, it is difficult to imagine a more mundane and unremarkable technology in healthcare than the unassuming disposable glove used by healthcare practitioners. In this phenomenological study, I explored how wearing and not wearing a medical glove might mediate the nurse’s touch, revealing and concealing the embodied practices that the glove makes possible and impossible. This phenomenological inquiry considers the relational and embodied ethics of a basic piece of equipment, the nurse’s glove. Concluding thoughts speak of the need for the nurse to remain aware of the relational experiences for both them and those they look after when wearing gloves.