Wound Care

Course overview

Wounds may be acquired from many different sources, such as bites, burns, punctures, scrapes, skin tears, surgery, and disease processes. Pressure ulcers and chronic wounds are often the result of immobility or venous or arterial insufficiencies. Therefore, it is important to assess the wound, taking into consideration the origin, the patient’s risk factors, and/or other co-morbidities that may affect the healing process. There are many wound care dressings and products that may be prescribed by providers, so it may be difficult to understand the reason one product and/or type of dressing may be utilized over another. Ideally each facility should have a wound-care nurse to ensure that the proper dressings and/or products are being utilized appropriately for various types of wounds. However, realistically, a wound-care specialist may not be easily accessible. Therefore, it is imperative that nurses are enlightened and knowledgeable about the various types of wounds and products to ensure that proper treatment is provided. There are many variables that affect the healing process. Throughout this educational offering, we will review the most common types of wounds and provide insight into the proper identification and treatment of these various types of wounds. We will also review normal anatomy and physiology of the skin, in order to understand just what is going wrong when a wound develops. Understanding why a wound forms allows the nurse to identify the wound type, initiate preventative interventions, and assess additional risk factors placing the patient at risk. LEARNING OBJECTIVES: •Describe the normal anatomy and pathophysiology of the skin. •Compare and contrast various types of acute and chronic wounds. •Identify each of the phases of wound healing. •Identify factors that affect the normal healing process. •Describe the nurse’s responsibility in assessing and documenting wounds. •Explain how wounds are diagnosed. •Identify treatment modalities for various types of wounds. • Identify nursing interventions used to prevent acute and chronic wounds from occurring. •Discuss the legal implications for nurses caring for patients with wounds.