How to irrigate an eye
Other platforms explain it with text and video. In Making Synapses you practice it on the patient.
Chemical eye injuries are emergencies. Irrigation starts before anything else.
Step by step
Start immediately
Water or saline at once; do not wait. [1]
Anesthetic
Drops if available, to keep the eye open. [1]
Direction
From the inner corner to the outer, away from the other eye. [1]
Under the lids
Hold lids open, sweep under them for particles. [1]
Volume and pH
At least a liter, then check pH; continue until near normal (about 7 to 7.5). [1]
Refer
Urgent eye exam. [1]
Common errors
- Delaying to find the chemical name.
- Irrigating toward the other eye.
- Stopping without pH check.
Practice it in Making Synapses
In Making Synapses you do this on the patient, not on paper: every step goes on the checklist with a score, and in Teach mode Blocky tells you what comes next.
Making Synapses cases that train this skill
- Pepper spray exposure
- Rosacea
- Stevens-Johnson syndrome
- Toxic epidermal necrolysis
- Seborrheic dermatitis
- Infantile hemangioma
59 Making Synapses cases train this skill: open the case library
Sources
- NASEMSO National Model EMS Clinical Guidelines
- Open RN, Nursing Skills 2e (Chippewa Valley Technical College) (CC BY 4.0)
- OpenStax, Clinical Nursing Skills (reference)
Steps adapted from Open RN, Nursing Skills 2e (Chippewa Valley Technical College), licensed under CC BY 4.0. Facts and steps also follow OpenStax, Clinical Nursing Skills (reference). Making Synapses is not affiliated with these organizations. Updated: 2026-10-11.