Opening a Sterile Pack (Nursing)

00:04 Let's talk about opening a sterile pack.

00:07 This is typically going to look at something like opening a sterile gauze, for example, or opening a sterile instrument.

00:14 Now first of all, we're going to perform hand hygiene first and foremost.

00:18 Then we're going to take our item.

00:20 Typically there on the top are little unsealed edges, we're going to grasp the package and pull those apart.

00:27 Now once we do that, we're going to hold that pack open and we're going to expose that sterile item.

00:33 So the exposed sterile item is meant to be handed over to the surgical team or maybe someone performing a sterile procedure or gently dropped onto the sterile field.

00:50 Let's take a look at opening a sterile item.

00:53 So typically, when we open a sterile item, we're doing this because we're going to either have to open and hand over that sterilize them to maybe someone doing a procedure or a nurse during procedure or we may have to take that sterile item and drop it onto a sterile field to add to the equipment.

01:11 Now, before we get started, let's do our hand hygiene.

01:14 And while I do this, I want to make sure I maintain eye contact and not leave my sterile field so I can make sure no one's came in bothered it and nothing's falling on that sterile field.

01:26 Now that I've done my hand hygiene, I'm going to show you how to take a sterile item, open that and drop it on my field.

01:34 So now I've got my gauze sponge, for example, and it's sterile because it's enclosed in a package.

01:40 Now one thing to know about a lot of sterile items, it's really nice because it may have a little arrow up here like on the top that shows you where you can peel.

01:51 So one other thing to note is notice that I don't have any gloves on.

01:54 This may make you a little nervous.

01:56 But because we are not touching anything inside this sterile item, we can do this, this is acceptable.

02:04 So when we are taking our sterile item.

02:07 There's the unsealed edges, I'm going to take my thumbs and kind of align it on that and open that up and kind of peel it like a banana if you would.

02:17 So now this is open.

02:18 And for this, I can drop this on my sterile field.

02:21 So I'm going to take this item, turn this over and drop it on my sterile field.

02:28 So I want you to note a few things.

02:31 I did not drop it way up here, right? That's important because I don't want the sterile item to bounce out of my sterile field.

02:40 The other thing to note is that once I dropped it in, I was really mindful of my 1-inch border that it did not hit that because remember, the one inch border is not sterile.

02:52 So where I've placed this, this is inside my sterile field and ready to use.

02:58 So I just showed you how to open a sterile item onto a sterile field.

03:03 Now you may be in a situation where you just need to hand that item over and I'm going to show you how to do that.

03:09 So we're going to take our gauze.

03:11 And remember the outside of this is not sterile, so I can use no gloves at this point.

03:16 We're just not touching what's inside.

03:19 Alright, so I'm going to take these unsealed edges, I kind of like to align my thumb's with the flaps, we're going to peel back like a banana and be really conscious of not touching our skin.

03:30 Then we're allowed to hand this over to another nurse or a physician, for example, performing a sterile procedure.

03:37 So one thing to keep a note, when I open this, remember sterile to sterile, so when I hand this over to someone, they will be wearing sterile gloves to use this item.