Wound Care and Dressing Techniques
Effective wound care promotes healing and prevents infection. Nurses assess wounds, select appropriate dressings, and use aseptic technique.
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What you must know about Wound Care & Dressing
Wound healing phases: haemostasis, inflammation, proliferation, and maturation (remodelling).
Healing can be by primary, secondary, or tertiary intention.
Aseptic (sterile) technique is used when dressing an open or surgical wound.
Assess wounds for size, exudate, odour, colour, and signs of infection.
Clean a wound from the least contaminated to the most contaminated area.
Signs of wound infection: redness, warmth, swelling, purulent discharge, and increasing pain.
NMCN Exam Tips
How this topic appears in the NMCN exam
Clean from clean to dirty (centre outward for a surgical incision).
Aseptic technique is essential for open wound dressing.
Know the order of the four healing phases.
Purulent (pus) discharge and increasing pain suggest infection.
Practice Question
Test yourself
When cleaning a surgical wound, the nurse should clean:
Explanation
The nurse cleans from the least contaminated area (the incision line) to the most contaminated area (surrounding skin), moving from the centre outward, using a new swab for each stroke to prevent introducing organisms into the wound.
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