I have always gloved. It might be different if you’re working in an outpatient clinic but inpatients often have stuff that I really don’t want on my bare hands. I’m a psychiatrist, so in intern year I only saw medical inpatients, and as a psychiatrist I mostly wind up doing full physical exams on inpatients as well.
Regarding medical inpatients, many of them have trouble bathing and so their hygiene is not exactly as good as it would be normally. Add to that all of the grossness that comes with medical conditions. I don’t know if someone has just scratched at their ulcer or whatever before touching my hands.
Regarding psych patients, I do routine physicals on admission but mostly that is just heart, lungs, abdominal sounds, cranial nerves, pulses, etc. I’m not usually having a patient lie back while I do deep palpation or whatever. Generally the only time where I’m actually doing much physical contact is when something is wrong. In practice, at least in my location, 80% of the time or more this winds up being a homeless patient with some sort of skin or dental issue. I don’t want to examine anyone’s ulcerated and potentially infected skin or mouth without gloves on.
