A P R I L 2 0 1 9 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y. N E T • 1 7
B
efore nursing
students can go
into the OR with
the surgeons they've
been assigned to, we
show them the basics of
hand hygiene, personal
protection equipment
and sharps safety. We
spend about an hour lay-
ing the foundation of safe
perioperative practice.
We begin with a 5-
minute soap-and-water demonstration at the scrub sink to make sure
the nurses-in-training have good scrubbing technique and that they
understand what they're doing and the reasons for it. Then we gown
and glove together using the best sterile techniques.
Once they're gowned and gloved, we walk over to a teaching table
to talk about sharps safety, including the neutral zone and where we
maintain our sharps on the sterile field. Using safety blades and
syringes, we teach the students where they can put their hands on the
sterile field and who they should talk to if they have a sharps incident.
Yvonne Hunter, RN
Excela Health
Greensburg, Pa.
yhunter@excelahealth.org
STERILE TECHNIQUES
Teach Students Proper
Scrubbing and Sharps Safety
• STARTING THEM YOUNG Before you let student nurses into the OR, teach
them proper scrubbing techniques.
Excela
Health
Ideas Work
That
