sterile procedures are performed frequently in the healthcare setting sterility is maintained during these procedures to ensure that the patient remains safe from contact with any infectious agents these procedures are many but the common thread between them is the need for donning sterile ppe the most common piece of this ppe is the sterile glove this video will demonstrate how to properly don and doff sterile gloves before you begin ensure you have properly sized sterile gloves many procedural kits will include a pair of one size fits all sterile gloves but most practitioners prefer to use the sized gloves that are available in all the pot rooms at st mary mercy hospital properly sized gloves are easier to don and provide better dexterity during the procedure so find the size that works best for you prior to donning your gloves remove all jewelry from your hands and wrists jewelry can make downing gloves more difficult but more importantly jewelry puts the integrity of the glove at risk it can put unnecessary pressure on the gloves and potentially cause them to tear which would break the sterility of your procedure putting the patient at risk for infection and also putting you at risk for coming into contact with body fluids and infectious agents from your patient with your watches and rings removed wash your hands these gloves are sterily packaged and this means that the contents of this outer wrap are completely sterile but your hands are not sterile and neither is your workspace and as soon as anything from within this package touches your hands or any surface there will be contamination the goal of donning sterile gloves is to maintain the sterility of the gloves themselves parts of the package will need to be contaminated in order to don the gloves but there is a very specific and deliberate process to follow to ensure that only the necessary areas and items become contaminated during any sterile procedure now open the outer wrap remove the sterile package and unfold the first two folds of the package but do not open beyond this point for now the gloves remain protected within the package the outside of the package is no longer sterile as it has been touched by your hands and has touched the work surface you can do your best to straighten out the remaining folds but make sure that you are only touching the outer surface of the wrapping you are now going to open and expose the gloves but when you do you have to be careful not to touch the inside of the package which is still sterile on the ends of the right and left folds there is a 1 inch lip folded back on itself you will grasp this lip and open to the sides you have now exposed your sterile gloves they are laid out on what you will now consider your sterile field the sterile field is an area of your workspace that has not been contaminated you must be careful never to touch your sterile field with your non-sterile hands and to never place any non-sterile objects on the field or the field will become contaminated you may have noticed that where the sterile field is indicated doesn't cover the entire inner wrapping of the glove package that is because the outer one-inch border of the wrap is considered contaminated no sterile supplies should come within one inch of the edge of your sterile field and if they do they will be considered contaminated and you will need to restart with new supplies take a look at the way the gloves are packaged you'll notice the cuff is folded back up over the palm of the glove this means that what you can see of the cuff at this point will be on the inside of the glove when you put it on you haven't touched the gloves yet so they are still completely sterile but you will need to touch them in order to put them on when you touch the gloves with your hands that surface of the glove will become contaminated think of the gloves as having two surfaces the inner surface and the outer surface this means that you can never touch the outside of the glove or the outer surface of the glove with your non-sterile hands but what you can touch is what will be the inside surface of the gloves the inside of the glove will be in constant contact with your skin so it is the only surface that you will ever purposefully contaminate proper opening of the package was shown earlier but this first step is commonly done wrong and leads to the contamination of your gloves and a risk for infection for the patient make sure to only grasp the inch of the package that is folded back on itself never grasp the fold itself your thumbs will touch the inside of the package and the gloves as you open the package and your supplies will be contaminated if this happens you will need to restart with new sterile gloves also never touch your sterile field if you do you will be contaminating that surface and you will need to restart with new sterile gloves when donning the gloves start by donning the glove onto your dominant hand so with your non-dominant hand grasp the inner surface of the cuff of your dominant hand's glove the inner surface of this glove is now contaminated but that's okay because we know the only thing that needs to remain sterile is the outer surface of both gloves slide your dominant hand into the glove you can pull the glove over your hand but make sure your non-dominant hand is only grasping the inner surface of the cuff slide the glove over your hand but do not pull the cuff over your wrist at this point leave it folded inside out for now common mistakes include grasping the glove at the top of the cuff doing this will bring your hand in contact with the outer surface of the glove and contaminate the glove always remember you can only touch the inside surface of the sterile gloves with your non-sterile hands with your dominant hand properly gloved you now have a sterile hand that sterile hand can touch any part of your sterile field or any part of your remaining glove and nothing will become contaminated but if you touch anything outside of your sterile field with that hand the dominant hand will become contaminated and you'll need to restart with new sterile gloves you're going to be inserting your non-dominant hand into the remaining glove and while doing that you must ensure that the now sterilely gloved hand does not come into contact with your remaining non-sterile hand so you will hold the non-dominant glove differently work your dominant hand under the cuff touching the outer surface of the remaining glove because your hand is now sterile it can touch the outer surface of the remaining glove without contaminating it work your fingers under the cuff and up to the fold of the cuff then slide your non-dominant hand into the glove being careful never to touch your dominant hand or the outer surface of the non-dominant glove as you get your hand completely into this glove you can unfold the cuff down the wrist be careful your dominant hand is still only touching the outer surface of this glove and never comes in contact with your skin mistakes are made during this step as well first make sure your gloves never touch anything outside the sterile field and remember that when you have one hand that is sterile the second glove is not done the same as the first don't grasp the inner surface of this cuff that will lead to your non-sterile hand contacting your sterile glove and contaminating it as you pull the glove on with both gloves donned both hands are now considered sterile you need to extend the cuff of the dominant hand over your wrist so with your sterile non-dominant hand slide your fingers under the cuff so that they only contact the outer surface of the glove and then carefully unfold it down the wrist ensuring you never touch the inner surface of the glove or your skin common mistakes seen while unrolling the cuffs mainly involve grasping the cuff and pulling it down instead of rolling it this will lead to your sterile glove coming into contact with your skin and contaminating the glove also never pull the glove down over your arm and allow it to snap back to your wrist this leads to a lot of uncontrolled and unnecessary movement of the sterile glove and will likely be contaminated by your skin in this process finally if at any point your sterile gloves come in contact with anything non-sterile or touch the surface outside of the sterile field they are contaminated do not continue to don them dispose of them and get a new sterile glove package most practitioners will bring an extra pair of sterile gloves into a procedure just in case sterility is ever broken this way they can don new gloves and continue with a procedure you have now donned both sterile gloves and your hands are both considered sterile at this point you can continue to your procedure removing or doffing sterile gloves is not difficult but again there is a specific procedure to follow the focus now isn't avoiding the contamination of the glove but rather making sure that whatever contamination is now on the glove doesn't come in contact with you or your skin you are now protecting yourself grasp the glove by the outer surface of one of the cuffs and pull that glove over your hand to remove it make sure never to touch your skin with your gloved hand your gloved hand is only making contact with the outer surface of the glove you are removing then ball up the glove you just removed into the fist of your still gloved hand with your ungloved hand slide a finger under the cuff and peel the glove over your hand turning it inside out never touch the outer surface of the glove with your ungloved hand you now have a reverse glove that has formed a kind of a sack that contains everything that was on the outer surface of both gloves as well as the balled up glove from your other hand you can handle this glove sack without risk of contaminating your own hands dispose of it into the proper receptacle the downing of sterile gloves is one of the first steps of any sterile procedure and it is possibly the most important if sterility is broken during the sterile gloving phase it will lead to the contamination of every piece of equipment that is touched during that procedure and that can lead to infections in the patient and potentially death you