Why So Sterile?

One of the first skills you will learn as a nursing student will be donning sterile gloves. It's something that is easily disregarded by new nursing students, seeing as you have a million other things on your plate. BUT, it is extremely important to learn how to don sterile gloves properly in the beginning. Before you know it, you will be doing procedures such as catheter insertion and trache care. There is nothing more embarrassing than starting getting tangled up in gloves that are stuck to your sweaty palms. It should be, by far, the easiest part of any sterile procedure. Remember, sterile procedures are sterile for a reason. If you break that sterility at any point, you put the patient at risk for infection.

Here is a video that will help you:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAKZ3mdFIj4

When I was in nursing school, I was big on Post-it notes. This is a picture of one of the sticky notes in my skills binder that helped me remember what NOT to do when applying sterile gloves.