PPE and Hand Hygiene — Practice Checklist

Step-by-Step Procedure (6 steps)

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.

Instructor Competency Checkpoints (5)

Your instructor or preceptor will be watching for all of these during sign-off.

• 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.

Critical Mistakes — Avoid These

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

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  Skipping hand hygiene between glove removal and leaving the room.

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

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

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