Ace the Maryland Geriatric Nursing Aide Challenge 2026 – Empower Your Caregiving Journey!

The idea here is to take off contaminated PPE in a way that protects you and others from exposure, cleaning your hands at key points to prevent transferring contaminants. You start by removing the gloves, because they are the most likely to be dirty after patient contact. After taking off the gloves, you perform hand hygiene to clean your hands before handling the rest of the gear. Next you remove the gown, which helps prevent dirty surfaces from contacting your clothing or skin; again you clean your hands to remove any contaminants that may have loosened during removal. Then you remove eye or face protection and finally the mask, since these are worn closest to your mucous membranes and removing them last reduces the chance that contaminated droplets or surfaces touch your eyes, nose, or mouth. Finish with a final hand hygiene to ensure hands are clean after all PPE is off. This sequence minimizes cross-contamination and protects both you and residents.