SURGICAL GOWNING AND GLOVING
Drying the hands and arms
The hands and arms are dried as follows:
1. Reach down to the opened sterile gown package and pick up the towel with one hand by one corner. Be
careful not to drip water onto the pack because contamination may occur. Be sure no one is within arm’s
reach. Be aware of the environment to prevent contamination.
2. Grasp the opposing corner of the towel with the other hand and open the towel full length. Use one end
of the towel to dry one hand and arm. Use a circumferential motion to rub in one direction from hand to
upper arm. Do not rub back and forth. Bend slightly forward to avoid letting the towel touch the attire.
3. Dry the second arm, hold the dry, clean end of the towel in the opposite hand and use a circumferential
motion to dry the hand and all areas of the arm top the elbow.
4. Discard the towel with the hand that is currently holding it without letting it touch the scrub suit. Do not
wad the used towel and toss it across the room to the laundry hamper or trash.
Procedure
Steps Procedure
Gowning Self
5. Pick up the folded sterile gown from the
sterile field directly upward like picking up
the hook by its binding.
6. Step back and away from the table into an To provide a wide margin of safety while gowning to
unobstructed area prevent contamination.
7. Holding the folded gown like a book by its To ensure that the neckline will not drop down when
binding, carefully locate the neckline and the unfolding the gown.
armholes.
8. Holding the inside front of the gown just at
the armholes with both hands, let the gown
unfold, keeping the inside of the gown toward
the body and the hands in the armholes,
Do not touch the outside of the gown The outside or right side part of the gown is sterile
with bare hands and can be contaminated with bare hands.
If the top of the gown drops The top of the gown must remain sterile.
downward inadvertently, discard the Dropping it below the level of the sterile field can
gown as contaminated. cause contamination.
Never reverse a sterile gown if the Reversing the sterile gown causes a break in sterility.
wrong end is dropped toward the
floor.
9. Extend both arms into the armholes Extending the arms facilitates wearing of the sleeves
simultaneously as the gown and its sleeves without contamination.
10. The circulating nurse, standing behind the
scrub, brings the gown over the shoulders by
reaching inside to the shoulder and arm
seams.
The gown is pulled on, leaving the Closed gloving methods will follow that the hands
cuffs of the sleeves extended over the must be covered with sterile sleeves.
hands.
Do not push the hands through the
cuffs.
11. For reusable sterile gown where the belt is
hanging in front, the scrub person should
swing to the right and to the left to allow the
circulating nurse to catch the end portion of
the belt.
12. The back of the gown is securely tied at the
waist first, followed by the neckline.
The circulating nurse takes care not to
pull the gown so snug that the cuffs
are pulled back and exposed the
hands.
Closed-Gloving Technique
1. Ensure that the hands are kept inside the
cuffs of the sterile gown at all times.
2. If the gloves are still in the folded inner
paper wrapper, they need to be opened.
Using the cuff-covered hands, place the
wrapper in front of you like a book. Open
the two sides. There is an inner corners
fold to the glove wrapper. With two cuff-
covered hands grasp the lower inner
corners of the bottom fold. Lift both
corners open and fold under at the same
time.
3. Extend the left forearm with the palm
upward (supinated)
4. With the cuff-covered right hand, pick up
the left glove from the inner wrap of the
glove package by grasping the fingers,
lifting straight up, and placing the glove
on the left palm thumb side down. The
glove fingers will be pointing toward the
body.
5. Grasp the edges of the glove cuff with the
cuffed right hand and the opposite edge
with the cuffed left hand, over the end of
the left sleeve and wiggle the fingers to
extend them into the glove-covered left
hand. The cuff of the left glove is now
over the stockinette cuff of the gown, with
the hand still inside the sleeve.
6. Grasp the cuff of the left glove and
underlying left gown sleeve with the
covered right hand. Pull the glove on over
the extended left fingers until it
completely covers the stockinette cuff.
7. Glove the right hand in the same manner
reversing hands. Use the sterile glove left
hand to grasp the fingers of the right glove
and position the glove on the right
forearm. Be sure that the entire cuff of
each sleeve is contained within the sterile
glove.
