Medical-surgical gloves are designed to protect surgeons, staff, and their patients in operating room environments. As any healthcare provider knows surgical gloves must be so much more than just a protective barrier. The gloves need to provide a level of comfort that won't distract from the well-being of the patient or cause fatigue during long cases. They must be safe but easy to Don they must be strong but allow for a high level of tactile sensitivity.

Check our guide for How to choose best nitrile gloves suitable for your job in 2022?

Step by step process to Self-Don medical-surgical gloves

Select the gloves you'd like to wear in the correct size and make sure the packaging is intact without any rips or tears or moisture and that the gloves are not expired. 

  1. The gown is open on a large flat surface. The gloves are open alongside the gown on the same wrapper as the gown.
  2. Open the outer wrap of the glove package starting at the top edge, this will expose the sterile inner wallet that contains your medical-surgical gloves. 
  3. Flip the sterile inner wallet onto the sterile wrapper.
  4. Don the gown after surgical scrub 
  5. Unfold the inner wallet with your hands still inside the gown sleeves so that both the right and the left gloves are exposed 
  6. Pick up the dominant hand glove with your gown covered non-dominant hand 
  7. Lay the thumb to thumb with the fingers pointing up the arm towards your heart 
  8. Grasp the glove cuff on the bottom between your index finger and thumb of the gown covered dominant hand 
  9. Grasp the glove cuff on the top between your index finger and thumb of the gown covered non-dominant hand 
  10. Pull the top cuff over the end of the gown cuff on the dominant hand 
  11. Pick up the non-dominant hand glove with your glove covered dominant hand 
  12. Repeat this process to glove your non-dominant hand 
  13. Pull-on the dominant and non-dominant hand top gloves 
  14. Once the medical-surgical gloves cover the gown cuff opening, give the gown sleeve a gentle tug to ease the hand into the glove. This will prevent cuff tearing 
  15. Milk the fingers down if appropriate. inspect all surfaces of the gloves on both hands. Visually check for any tears or holes in the glove. 
  16. Immediately after donning flatten or smooth the glove cuff on the gown cuff interface to minimize channeling 
  17. Give the beaded cuff a quarter turn to lock and load the mechanical locking cuff this will help retain the integrity of the glove gown interface 
  18. Visually check for any tears or holes in the glove 

If double gloving repeats this process. Double gloving is a best-recommended practice and studies have shown that wearing a colored indicator under a glove can reduce the time to spotting a breach from 67 seconds to 42 seconds. There are many different preferences when it comes to double-gloving combinations. There is no wrong combination when it comes to double gloving. The most important consideration is to ensure you have a good fit and that the medical-surgical gloves are comfortable and not too loose or too tight.

What do we have for you?

Concern over the complications of latex allergies is driving many health care facilities to eliminate latex products particularly gloves in their facilities. The risk is significant to both patients and healthcare providers. Hypersensitivity to the latex proteins in the gloves may cause numerous symptoms. In some cases, severe reactions such as swelling of the throat or tongue or anaphylactic shock may occur. As a health care provider continued exposure to latex increases your risk of developing the allergy and there is no cure. Aside from the safety concerns, latex can become a financial burden on health care facilities (the cost of treating an employee who develops a latex allergy is estimated to be over $200,000).

Recently Symtera Analytics has introduced synthetic polyisoprene surgical gloves in the USA. When all of the risks commonly overlooked hidden costs and the latest synthetic options are considered implementing a 100% latex-free environment is easier to justify. Then what are you waiting for contact us to get a quote for latex-free sterile surgical gloves.