Donning and Removing

solneeshka, BSN, RN · Mar 6, 2009

Always remember, "dirty to dirty, clean to clean." The order that you're putting everything on isn't particularly crucial because at that point, it's all clean. Really, you put the gloves on last because everything else is harder to put on if you already have gloves on. You do want to pull the gloves up over the sleeve of the gown as much as you can, but it's probably not going to stay there anyway.

If we're talking here about passing a check-off, then you remove, you do the reverse. You take the gloves off, being careful not to touch the outside of the glove with any ungloved part of your hand. You do take off the gown with your ungloved hands, but you have to be really careful to not be touching the outside of the gown. First you untie it. Since the ties are in back, they should still be clean, unless you've been rubbing your backside against the patient or their bed. :wink2: Then you hook one finger under the cuff of the other sleeve of the gown, pull that sleeve off, and then sort of wrap the rest of the gown down once you have that start, so that the dirty side (outside) of the gown is rolling to the inside where it can't contaminate anything else. Then you very gingerly andd with ungloved hands pull of the straps of the mas from behind your ears, toss it in the trash can. Same with the goggles/glasses (you will probably need to do these before you remove the mask, in order to access the mask straps).

NOW, once you're actually in the hospital, what generally happens when you're removing all of this is that if you have plastic gowns, then you just pull at the front of the gown with your still-gloved hands until the ties in the back snap, then you start rolling it around your gloved hands/arms until it pulls right down your arms, you keep rolling and the gloves come right off with it, pretty much in one continuous motion. It's all dirty-to-dirty, clean-to-clean. If you don't have plastic gowns, then you untie the gown in back with your still-gloved hands and do this. Mask/goggles come off like they did above. Don't take them off with dirty gloves, gross!

I hope this didn't make everything more confusing for you! It sounds like you are starting nursing school (congratulations!); you will quickly find that there's the way they make you do things for check-off, and then there's the way that things actually get done in the hospital.