Lessons · Nursing · isolation precautions: PPE on and off
Protective equipment: on in one order, off in another
Putting it on: gown, mask, eye protection, gloves. Taking it off: gloves first, then eye protection, then gown, then mask, with hand hygiene at the end and any time the hands become contaminated.
Hone is a place to practise a career, one idea a day. This is one of its lessons, written out in full and free to read without an account.
What it is for
The dirtiest thing in the room is the outside of your gloves, and the order for taking equipment off exists to get that away from your face and your skin first. Running the two sequences the same way round is the mistake that carries what was in the room out of it.
How to think about it
On: work from the body outwards, ending with gloves over the gown's cuffs. Off: start with the most contaminated, which is the gloves, then eye protection, then the gown rolled away from you, and the mask last, by its ties or loops, because its front is contaminated and it is the last thing between the room and your face.
Worked example
On: the gown first, tied at the neck and waistThe body first, so everything else overlaps it.
On: then the mask, then the eye protectionThe face next, while the hands are still clean.
On: the gloves last, pulled over the gown's cuffsGloves last, so they seal the sleeve.
Off: the gloves firstThe most contaminated item comes off first, and the hands are cleaned.
Off: then eye protection, then the gown, then the mask, then hand hygieneAway from the face, the gown rolled inside out, the mask by its ties.
Your turn
Write the first item removed when leaving the room.
Off, first item:
Solve one, graded on the server
The trap
Taking the mask off first because it is uncomfortable. Its front is contaminated and your gloved hands are the dirtiest things in the room, so a mask removed first takes contamination straight to the face.