Sterile technique

Sterile technique — also known as surgical asepsis — is the collection of practices used to eliminate all microorganisms, including spores, from objects and areas involved in a procedure. It goes beyond medical asepsis (clean technique), which only reduces the number and spread of organisms. Whenever the body's protective barriers are bypassed — surgery, urinary catheterization, IV insertion, sterile dressing changes — sterile technique is required.

The foundation is the sterile field: a microorganism-free work area created with sterile drapes and maintained by strict rules. Only sterile items may touch other sterile items; a sterile object touching anything non-sterile is immediately considered contaminated. The outer 1-inch border of a sterile field is treated as contaminated, as is anything below waist or table level, anything out of sight (never turn your back on a sterile field), and anything that becomes wet, because moisture wicks organisms upward from non-sterile surfaces. When in doubt about an item's sterility, treat it as contaminated.

Practicing sterile technique includes surgical hand scrubs, donning sterile gowns and gloves without touching their outer surfaces, opening sterile packages away from the body with the first flap opened away from you, and pouring sterile solutions without splashing. Team members also monitor one another — breaks in technique must be called out and corrected regardless of who caused them.

Sterile technique is tested on both the CCMA exam, where medical assistants must know how to set up a sterile field and assist during minor surgery, and the NCLEX, which tests surgical asepsis principles, sterile field rules, and their application to procedures like catheterization and IV therapy.