Remove gloves without contaminating yourself
Gloves only protect you if they come off correctly. Learn the two rules that keep whatever you touched off your skin, and when to wash.
- A glove is a barrier, not a cleaner: Nothing on a glove disappears when the lab ends. It is still there, on the surface you have to get past to take the glove off.
- Skin is what you are protecting: Every rule in glove removal exists so that bare skin never meets the surface that did the work.
Prerequisites are inferred: pending teacher review.
Re-learn the skill with worked practice and clear examples.
Now use the technique when something interrupts it: a tear, or a job that pulls you away from the bench mid-task.
A glove splits across the palm while a student is handling a simulated blood sample. What is the correct order of actions?
Reviewed- A.Peel off only the split glove and replace it
- B.Finish the current sample first so the run is not wasted, then change gloves
- C.Pull on a second glove over the split one and carry on to the end of the run
- D.Stop, remove both gloves properly, wash, check the skin, re-glove
Show the worked solution ▾
Answer: D. Stop, remove both gloves properly, wash, check the skin, re-glove
- Step 1: Ask what a split means: The barrier failed, so the skin underneath may already have been exposed.
- Step 2: Deal with the exposure before the workflow: Removing both gloves, washing and looking at the skin answers the exposure question. Only then does the task resume.
Why it's right: A split means the barrier failed, so the first question is what reached the skin, not how to keep working. Removing both gloves, washing and inspecting answers that, and a fresh pair restarts the barrier.
- A: Replacing only the split glove restores the barrier but never checks the skin underneath, so an exposure goes unnoticed.
- B: Finishing the sample first puts the run ahead of the exposure, and the contact time on the skin gets longer for no gain.
- C: Layering a glove over a split one seals whatever got through against the skin and keeps it there for the rest of the run.
Aligned to Handling, Preparation, Storage and Disposal · reading level ~grade 9
Mid-procedure a student needs to look something up on a shared classroom laptop. What should happen first?
Reviewed- A.Take the gloves off properly, wash, then use the laptop
- B.Ask a partner with cleaner gloves to type instead
- C.Type with one knuckle so the gloves touch as little as possible
- D.Wipe the gloves on a paper towel and then use the laptop
Show the worked solution ▾
Answer: A. Take the gloves off properly, wash, then use the laptop
- Step 1: Name what the keyboard becomes: A shared keyboard touched by a used glove now carries whatever the glove carried, for everyone after.
- Step 2: Break the chain at the glove: Removing the gloves before leaving the bench is what stops the transfer, and washing covers what removal misses.
Why it's right: A shared keyboard becomes a transfer point the moment a used glove reaches it, and the next student has no way to know. Removing the gloves before leaving the bench is what stops it.
- B: A partner's gloves are also used gloves. Moving the job to another person moves the transfer, it does not stop it.
- C: A knuckle is still glove. Reducing the contact area reduces nothing that matters once any part of the used surface reaches the keys.
- D: Wiping smears the surface around rather than decontaminating it, and the towel then becomes a second contaminated object.
Aligned to Handling, Preparation, Storage and Disposal · reading level ~grade 9
- A student pauses the Activity 1.2.3 presumptive testing run to record results, and has to decide what happens to the gloves first.
Fill these in as you work through the lesson.
- Doffing (taking PPE off):
- Contaminated surface (the side that did the work):
- Hand hygiene (washing, before and after):
- Barrier (what stands between a hazard and you):
Bare skin touches only the of a glove; a gloved hand touches only the of a glove.
- Name the one surface of a used glove your fingers must never meet.
- Give the reason washing still happens after a clean removal.
- Your glove tears mid-task. Write the order of what you do next.
Pinch the first glove at the wrist through the glove you are still wearing. Peel it down so it turns inside out, and hold that bundle in your gloved palm. Now slide two bare fingers up under the wrist band of the second glove, against the lining, and peel it down over the bundle. Both gloves finish inside out, one wrapped in the other, and nothing that did the work has met your skin.