High impact activity for Health Care Providers

Ever wonder how can I make my students understand that something as simple as removing exam gloves after a procedure can spread diseases and organisms?  We have been using this activity for a while with good results, it makes the students think about something as simple as removing exam gloves.

High impact instructional practice to me is something that I do in the classroom to facilitate learning and excite the students regarding whatever topic we are discussing that week.  The first learning plan that we do in Nursing skills is discuss the concept of Asepsis.  We have an activity that we do in class with the students.  We fill gallon size zip lock bags with chocolate pudding, and drop 5-8 buttons into the pudding mixture.  We ask the students to put gloves on and fish out one button and place it on a paper towel.  We then tell the students to remove the gloves in the proper manner without getting pudding everywhere.  By this time the gloves are covered with pudding.  Inevitably someone gets pudding on the counter, floor or themselves.  We then talk about removing gloves when they are doing patient care and the potential for spreading microorganisms in the air and the environment.  This correlates with the discussion of the various level of isolation precautions, (contact, airborne, droplet, and protective environment).  The students find it interesting and it make them think about exactly what they are doing while removing gloves in a patient room.