How to Put on Sterile Gloves | Donning Sterile Gloves Clinical Nursing Skills

A clinical nursing skill nurses must learn is how to put on sterile gloves.

So, why do nurses wear sterile gloves?

Short answer: to protect our patients. The sterile gloving technique is used to protect patients in the hospital and clinical settings from the spread of diseases and germs, especially while performing delicate procedures that could introduce deadly bacteria into sterile organs or body cavities.

Steps on How to Put on Sterile Gloves

1. Perform hand hygiene.
2. Select the appropriate sized gloves.
3. Open the sterile package of sterile gloves with caution by using the flaps surrounding the package. Remember you have 2 inches to grab around the sterile field without contaminating it.
4. First, glove your dominant hand. Pick up the glove for the dominant hand with your non-dominant hand by grasping the inside of the cuff of the glove. Then slide it onto your dominant hand. Be careful not to touch anything with this gloved hand other than the sterile packaging.
5. Take your sterile gloved hand and slip it under the cuff of the other glove to glove your non-dominant hand. Gently push the glove (while the hand is still under the cuff) onto your non-dominant hand.
6. Adjust the gloves carefully…making sure you don’t touch your skin or other objects.

Video on How to Put on Sterile Gloves

Tips on Putting Sterile Gloves

• Nurses should never touch anything other than what is required for the procedure with the sterile gloves.
• If the sterile gloving process is broken at any point, use new gloves from a new package.
• Wear sterile gloves only when necessary.
• Never wash gloves and reuse them.
• Never use gels and alcohol to clean gloves, use a new pair each time.
• Use a new set of gloves on each patient and each procedure.
• Gloves do not substitute the proper cleaning of hands before using sterile gloves.

Complications with not Putting on Sterile Gloves Correctly

Sterile gloves act as a protective barrier between nurses and their patients. Complications that can arise from not putting on sterile gloves correctly are the spread of infection and diseases. The gloves can break during a procedure and the nurse and the patient can be in immediate danger from exposure to hazardous materials and bodily fluids.

Nurses must be conscious of their actions when putting on sterile gloves to ensure their own safety and the safety of their patients.

You may be interested in: how to remove sterile gloves properly.