Personal Protective Equipment

Personal protective equipment (PPE) is equipment worn to protect a person from being exposed to infectious material, such as blood or other body fluids that contain pathogens. PPE consists of gloves, a cover gown, a surgical mask, and safety goggles. Gloves are used to cover the hands and are worn when there may be contact with blood or body fluids, or when the person has non-intact skin. Cover gowns are used to protect the uniform and body and are worn when splashing of any potentially infectious fluids are present. Masks and safety goggles are used to protect the eyes, nose, and mouth when splashing could also occur. For the most protection, choose PPE based on expected exposure, and whether there is only touch, splashes, sprays, large amounts of blood or body fluids, secretions, and excretions present. Donning and …show more content…
One of these challenges include when removing the contaminated gloves, I had a habit of my thumb touching the outside part of the glove. It's very important not to touch the outside part of the glove because it is contaminated. I solved this challenge by whenever I go to insert my fingers into the glove, I would hold my thumb in the palm of my hand so it wouldn’t move. Another challenge I experienced was tying the ties on the mask and cover gown behind me. It was a little hard for me to tie them behind my back because I couldn't see what I was tying and I kept tying my hair or the gown with the ties. To solve this problem, I made sure I was only holding onto the ties only, and practicing the skill many times also helped. To master this competency, it took me about ten tries, practicing both at school and at home. My ability for this competency is good I believe. Making mistakes such as putting the mask on backwards is things I learned from to improve my abilities for this skill. I also made sure that when removing PPE, I was very careful not to get