PPE and Hand Hygiene

1Step-by-Step Procedure

1. 1

   Perform hand hygiene (20 seconds with soap and water, or alcohol-based hand rub if hands aren't visibly soiled) before any patient contact.

2. 2

   Don PPE in the correct order when required by the patient's precautions: gown first, then mask or respirator, then goggles or face shield, then gloves last.

3. 3

   Perform the collection using standard precautions, treating all blood and body fluids as potentially infectious.

4. 4

   After the procedure, remove PPE in the correct order: gloves first, then goggles/face shield, then gown, then mask/respirator last.

5. 5

   Perform hand hygiene immediately after removing gloves, and again after removing all PPE.

6. 6

   Dispose of all sharps directly into a sharps container and other contaminated materials into biohazard waste per facility protocol.

What Your Instructor/Preceptor Is Checking

• ✓

  Performs hand hygiene before donning gloves and immediately after removing them.

• ✓

  Dons PPE in the correct order: gown, mask, goggles, gloves.

• ✓

  Doffs PPE in the correct order: gloves, goggles, gown, mask.

• ✓

  Applies standard precautions consistently, not only for patients with known infections.

• ✓

  Disposes of sharps directly into a sharps container with no intermediate setdown.

Common Mistakes

• ⚠

  Reversing the donning or doffing order, which increases self-contamination risk.

• ⚠

  Skipping hand hygiene between glove removal and leaving the room.

• ⚠

  Treating standard precautions as optional for patients without a known diagnosis.

• ⚠

  Touching the outside of a contaminated glove with a bare hand while removing it.

• ⚠

  Setting a used needle down "just for a second" instead of disposing of it immediately.

Practice Tips

• →

  The donning and doffing order are both frequently tested as standalone exam questions — know both sequences, not just the general concept of PPE.

• →

  Hand hygiene timing (before gloves, after gloves, after all PPE) is tested as specifically as the PPE order itself.

More Practice Resources