Went for a regular check up up/blood test. and the nurse at my regular doctor's office rubbed her (ungloved) index finger along the vein on my arm and then put on gloves and She tore off the right index finger on her gloves to palpate a vein (so it was exposed to handle the needle easily I guess) and then took the blood. she didn't swab the vein with the alcohol wipes after rubbing it.. And then she finished it and put the with the cotton on the site of blood draw. Is there a risk of HIV? I did not see any blood on her finger. But she did not clean my vein after rubbing it with bare finger. thank you so much. also I never seen a nurse breaking the tip of the index finger glove to use the needle. thank you so much

Of course it would have been proper for the nurse to swab your skin with alcohol before inserting the needle, but even this lapse has little or no significant effect on your risk of infection. Touching patients' skin with bare fingers while drawing blood also is not unsafe. Minor lapses in blood draw hygiene might risk staph and strep infections, but not blood borne infections like HIV or viral hepatitis. And by the way, the reason for routine gloving when drawing blood and certain other kinds of patient contact is NOT done to protect the patient from an infection being cared by the health care provider. The main reason is to protect the provider from infections the patient might carry.

Feel free to discuss her blood drawing procedures with the nurse herself -- perhaps she will have additional reassurance for you. But you really should not be at all worried. There is no chance you could have caught HIV or any other blood borne infection.

HHH, MD