Please need help....

I asked a similar question like this earlier, but I really need this answered and I would really appreciate it! So I have this friend in an accerlerated nursing program in trouble. She had to insert a foley catheter into a dummy for a simulation lab and she just wanted to make sure that everything in the kit was there for insertion. The kits are also used by several other students for practice so that's why she wanted to check. So she put her bare hands into the kit to make sure everything was there, and then she closed the kit back. She then disinfected her hands and opened the kit back again and then applied sterile gloves and then carried off the procedure. The instructor believes that she broke sterility, but then she was just checking at first and then afterwards she did everything correct. Thanks for all help guys!!!
This is a very different question than in your other post. Going into a kit with bare hands would definitely be considered breaking sterility, regardless of whatever hand hygiene was done either before or after.I can understand the need to check contents of a kit if it is reused, but that should have been done with clear separation to where the skill being assessed for class began. I also would have told the instructor exactly what I was doing (or rather, asked if it was ok if I checked the contents of the kit before beginning the skill).You (or your classmate) also could have just began the skill without checking, as you would do in a hospital setting where you were opening a new kit, and if in the process of performing the skill you found a needed item not in the kit, you would then make the instructor aware.Lots of potential options of what could have been done differently , but you didn't ask about that... you asked about whether sterility was broken, and I would say the answer to that is definitely yes.

Sounds like you discovered your mistake and wanted to start over, but the instructor wasn't buying it. I would accept I made a mistake and move on.

I agree with scrubs: if it was a skill check for a single-use kit, then I would have proceeded as if we were in a hospital setting. If during the skill check something was missing, I would have brought it to their attention then.

So was this a second situation or the full story on the first situation you presented in the other post?

I think if your urgent request for help is because you plan to argue the point with your instructor, unless this check-off is really, really important to your grade I would recommend that you accept his or her judgement and move on.You need to pick your battles very carefully in nursing school and this can only bite you back if you choose to make an issue out of it. Having the good will of your instructor will be extremely important moving forward. What matters is that you understand sterile procedures even if she unfairly dinged you. It's happened to all of us, I would bet. Best to you!

Don't make excuses in school even if they're valid. Own up; jump that hoop and carry on. The more you beleaguer the point the more the instructor will burn in her memory you're action.Much better for the instructor to remember compliance and acceptance with the ability to learn then excuses as to why a wrong action was taken.Yes, yes in some instances you must defend yourself but remember where you are (nursing school) .Now that you know never put your hands in anything without gloves even if it is a clinical model that's not sterile; and that they're always watching you. Always perform as if it's for real. Never assume (the word begins with ...) and can make you one if you're not careful.Good luck

If you're getting signed off on a competency in nursing school, you're actually performing the skill from the minute you touch the kit. It sucks, but it's true. So, according to that idea, your friend broke sterile procedure. In the future, if she'd like to say to the evaluator, "Is it okay if I check to make sure I have everything before I start," that's a different story. But, again, she may get shot down, because they may be concerned that she'd rearrange things in the kit to make performing the skill easier.TL;DR: Don't touch ANYTHING in a sterile procedure kit without being ready to begin the actual sterile procedure.

i wanna agree with the first post-this op is describing something totally different than the one in the student forum. it looks as if your friend is trying to debate or argue the grade he/she got on that skill check off. i got dinged last semester when performing my steril glove check off, and even though i didn't agree with it, i stayed quite, i heard the good critizism my instructor had to give me, then when i re-did the skill i did it right. fighting,arguing over a grade is not good. it's better to be humble and take it, then perform it the next time in the manner they wanted us to do it the first time. -now-let me get to your question, if what you say is correct and true i am sure the instructor would've known your friend wasn't performing the skill and no *contamination* was done, but if your friend tried to cover up a mess up by saying he/she was 'checking' the kit, then that's not cool. i have done this in the past what other posters have pointed out and that is: doing the skill and if somehting is missing or broken then i would tell my instructor and more than likely they all will say, 'grab another kit', just like it happened to me. i am not about to argue with my ci over something i am learning and do not know the proper way of doing it. advise your friend to just own it, and move on.