Sticky Sterile Gloves

[lorias]

Hello Everyone,

I started nursing school three weeks ago and the second week one of the skills was to don sterile gloves. I failed the skill because I touched the unsterile part of one glove with the sterile part of the other glove. I had the first glove on and went to put on the second glove, but it was very hard to open at the cuff (was very sticky)! Has this happened to anyone else and if so, does anyone have advice on how to get a sticky glove to open at the cuff so one can put it on. Thanks!

[aflahe00]

you won't be under this kind of criticism once your a nurse so don't sweat it. I had trouble with that too, I have big hands which doesn't help. Those practice gloves are only one size. Once I was able to pick my size I had a much better time with it.

[marie.rn2419, RN]

It's kinda tough to describe. But, maybe watch some youtube videos? Practice putting them on and have a nursing student friend watch you and let you know what you're doing wrong. Here:

Between you and I, if it makes you feel better... I remember sterile fields/technique used to stress me out so badly in nursing school. Just take a deep breathe, remember the basics and just get through this skill and move on..

[jennylee321]

Practice makes perfect with sterile gloves. As soon as I started working and using them every day I could get them on with my eyes closed. And as the previous poster said it's always easier performing a skill without an instructor breathing down your neck. Similar to the pressure of having an instructor assessing your ability to do a manual BP. I worked in a doctors office one summer during nursing school, did manual BPs everyday. When I came back I was so confident doing them in sim lab in front of the instructor. I also took a dressing kit and pair of gloves home and practiced before my sterile dressing lab.

[oceanblue52]

The gloves they test you with are tricky, so don't be discouraged!

Some tips: One you have your first glove on, be very mindful of the thumb on your gloved (sterile) hand. Keep it away from your other fingers, it's easy to forget about it when you are focused on wriggling your non-sterile hand in. Otherwise just take it slow and press the fingers of the non-sterile hand close together (instead of spreading out) such that they make a point. Do you have a pair you can practice with at home? If you pay close attention to how the packaging is put together you can fold it back up and practice at home.

[JKL33]

The main problem with the sterile glove issue is that the convention is not strictly based on fact. That 2nd cuff (whether inside or outside of it) is sterile until touched with the ungloved hand. In reality you can pick it up with your sterile hand only, and "unstick" it by rubbing it gently between your sterilely-gloved fingers. Think about it. If the exposed cuff of the 2nd glove were really "unsterile" prior to being touched by skin, then the entire contents of the package would be contaminated. Convention though, says that "as soon as the glove is touched, the outside is sterile and the inside is unsterile," meaning the inside should be considered unsterile for the purposes of having a routine manner of doing this and for decreasing the chances of actual contamination while getting the 2nd glove on. The problem is, that's a reasonable convention when working with surgical-quality sterile gloves, not so much with the sticky wads found in suction kits and straight cath kits.

Sorry, I know I'm not helping the student situation.

I feel bad at the frustration this causes...meanwhile I have seen/known of a number of instructors who used to teach that the tweezers in a Foley kit were unnecessary and that it was just fine to pick up saturated cotton balls with the sterilely-gloved hand and then apply them to the patient's skin (before swabsticks, obviously).