Community
7 November, 2025
Glove campaign earns award nomination
AN innovative project encouraging staff to re-think their use of single-use medical gloves has earned South West Healthcare (SWH) a nomination in the Victorian Public Healthcare Awards.
The ‘Gloves on, Gloves Off’ campaign was last week named a finalist in the state award for ‘creating a sustainable and climate resilient health system.’
The glove campaign was developed in response to the increase in personal protective equipment (PPE) use throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
The campaign aimed to change staff behaviour to reduce the overuse of non-sterile gloves where appropriate and instead focus on regular handwashing.
The campaign was born through collaboration between SWH’s sustainability and infection control teams and led to the creation of a simple behaviour-change campaign focused on one product and one action.
Grounded in evidence that good hand hygiene is fully effective when there is no risk of exposure to blood, bodily fluids, or hazardous substances, the campaign empowered staff to make informed decisions about glove use.
Over a 12-month period, the ‘Gloves On, Gloves Off’ project achieved a 17 per cent reduction in glove use.
This prevented 400,000 individual gloves from entering landfill, reducing associated emissions, and contributing to a decrease in hospital acquired infection rates.
“COVID-19 saw a huge increase in the amount of single-use medical waste used in health services across the globe as people became heightened to the idea of infection prevention, as was required at the time,” manager of infection prevention at SWH Jenny Lukeis.
“But moving forward we need to start to correct this trend for the sake of sustainability and look at what PPE is best practice and what is blatant overkill.”
Following a trip to the UK as the AEW Matthews Scholarship winner, Ms Lukeis was inspired to create change.
Her trip to the UK and her experience at the Infection Prevention Society Conference in Bournemouth in 2022 solidified that non-sterile gloves were being used unnecessarily in certain situations contributing to a lot of waste.
“As a result of this, we honed in on non-sterile gloves and began a behaviour change campaign,” SWH environmental sustainability officer Elvira Hewson said.
“I think one of the reasons why it worked so well was because it was a joint effort between sustainability and infection prevention.
“Staff were getting a consistent message from both; that this was good for patients and good for the environment which made it a win/win.”
The campaign’s success has drawn attention across the state, with SWH now sharing its learnings with other Victorian healthcare services.
The model is fully replicable and has already begun delivering positive outcomes beyond SWH campuses.
Being named as a finalist in the Victorian Public Healthcare Awards is a testament to the campaign’s impact and the dedication of the teams behind it.
It highlights the importance of innovation, evidence-based practice, and cross-disciplinary collaboration in shaping the future of sustainable healthcare.
“We are incredibly proud of our teams who have been recognised as finalists in this year’s awards,” chief executive at SWH Craig Fraser said.
“Each year the awards are an opportunity for us to put our ideas and our innovations to the test and to share what we’ve learned with the state.
“It’s not just about recognition for a job well done but about making a lasting impact on healthcare generally.
“For a regional service, we are consistently recognised and that really demonstrates the talent we have working for us, providing quality care to the southwest.”
