Hello. This is Mike from Surgtech Academy and today I'm going to
demonstrate gowning and glowing yourself with the closed glove technique.
Gowning and gloving yourself happens after you've scrubbed your hands and is an area
that I have found to have a very high incidence of contamination. Either by
dripping water on the back table or having the towel touch our scrub top. Now
normally I would be backing into the operating room but since this is a lab
I'm gonna just simulate it. Now make sure that when I'm backing into the operating
room my hands are above my elbows and between my axillary line and my waist.
And I will stand always 12 to 18 inches directly in front of the back table. Now
bending at the waist and keeping the elbows bent, pinch and lift the towel
from the sterile field with the right hand, without dripping or touching the
sterile field. At this point I'm gonna back away about
three to five feet, making sure the towel does not touch my scrub top, and that
I bend slightly at the waist so the towel doesn't touch. So, watching
experience scrub techs you'll find this is an area that they most contaminate.
You know they're too busy talking to their friends, 'hey how's it going' or
talking to your circulator and their towel will often times touch their scrub
top. But, we're not gonna do that. Alright, so making sure I'm drying my hands each
section. Alright, do not going back and forth. This is a no-no. Alright, we're
starting at the fingers and patting very slowly down to the elbow. At this point
with the towel remaining in my right hand I'm gonna go underneath the towel
and I'm gonna do the second, ah right arm. Again patting slowly. Making sure it's
completely dry. Not going back and forth. And stopping when I get to the elbow.
Now I'm gonna discard the towel in a proper receptacle or give it to a member
of the non sterile surgical team. Do not bunch it up. Do not throw it across the
room. Those are all no nos. Alright so now that we've dried our hands I'm gonna
secure the gown by grasping the center of the gown near the neck with one hand
and lifting the gown off the sterile field. Now I think the best way to do
this is to look at the gown before you pick it up. If the cuff of the gown is on
the left side pick it up with your left hand. If the cuff is on the right side
use your right hand. So this cuff is on the left so I'm gonna use my left hand
to pick it up. Be sure that the gown remains folded as you back away from the
field. Continue to always face the field. I'm gonna grasp the top of the gown
near the neck and gently unfold the gown. I'm gonna place my hands inside the gown
inside the sleeves and extend until I reach the sleeve cuff. Now I like to
always tell my students it's called it's like swimming. It's swimming forward.
This does a couple things. One I think it keeps us always facing our back table
but two, I've actually seen scrub techs who swim this way and they hit IV poles,
hitting their circulator, doing all sorts of things. So always go forward
with your gown. Now I'm in my gown. My fingers are behind the white cuff. I'm
gonna glove. Alright I've found gloving is probably the hardest thing for
students to learn. Which is why I'll have them practice gowning maybe once, but
doing gloves three times. So with my hands still in the gown cuff,
remaining over the sterile field, I will go ahead and open the package of my
gloves. Now I like to do the left glove first. So with my right hand I'm going to
pick the left glove up. Make sure that the left thumb is touching the left thumb
of my hand and make sure that the fingers are going up my arms. I'm going
to pinch and extend over the glove. Now don't be gentle with this all right. This
glove is made of latex not crystal. So sometimes I'll see students barely
stretching that glove over what makes it very very difficult to glove. And then I
like to pull the gown, not the gloves, extending my fingers into the glove. Now
because this is still sterile I can touch my fingers on my gloves. And then
again pulling on the gown and there we have a good left hand. Alright I'm
gonna repeat these steps for the other glove. I'm gonna grab the right glove
making sure that the thumb of the glove touches the thumb of my hand. Fingers are
pointing up the sleeve. Grasping with my thumb and my index finger and extending
over the cuff. When I get to this area pulling on my gown. Again, I can touch the
glove making sure that all my fingers are inside the holes. And then extend the
glove onto my hands. Now I like that my cuffs I tell my students to put them
along the ridge of the knuckles. And I like this because it helps prevent
contamination. If we get too far back the gloves tend to ride up and will extend
and we'll be able to see the white of the
cuff. If they are on the knuckle it's very difficult for a contamination. Now
lastly, alright, we want to turn the gown, right? So making sure that the circulator
has a firm grip on it, I'm going to grab the tag with my right hand, and I'm gonna
grab the tail with my left hand. Alright. I'm gonna pull off with the right,
give the tag to the circulator, and turn. Now you will notice that in turning I
did expose my back to the back table. So sometimes when I pass the tag off to the
circulator the circulator will actually turn and I will stay centered on the
back table. Alright. They're gonna pull the tag off, they're gonna hang on to it,
and we are going to tie the gown. And
that my friends is how to gown and glove yourself using the closed gloving method.
So until next time have a great day in surgery and remember to be a superstar
in your O.R.