What are the steps to apply a sterile dressing to a clean wound?

• A. Perform hand hygiene, set up sterile field, use sterile gloves, avoid touching sterile areas, apply dressing without contamination.
• B. Wash the wound with soap and water, then apply a band-aid.
• C. Open dressing package without gloves, touching sterile areas.
• D. Use clean technique and touch dressing with bare hands.

Answer: (A)

Maintaining sterility throughout the dressing application is essential to prevent infection. Start with hand hygiene to reduce microbes, then set up a sterile field so all dressing supplies stay sterile as you work. Put on sterile gloves and handle only sterile items, keeping fingers away from any nonsterile surfaces. Place the dressing onto the wound without touching the part that will contact the wound, and avoid recontaminating the wound or surrounding skin. Dispose of used materials properly and perform hand hygiene again.

Other approaches fail because they do not preserve asepsis: cleaning the wound and using a non-sterile band-aid introduces contaminants, opening a dressing without gloves and touching sterile areas breaches sterility, and using a clean technique with bare hands also risks transferring microbes to the wound.