How do you think like a nurse?

Born2Care4All · Dec 28, 2012

Okay here I'd an example of a question that I can remember about wound care....

Why is it important to clean a wound from the center and work outwards?

Two were completely off but I got hung up on the last two.

A. Prevent the spread of bacteria

B. Prevent contaminating an already cleaned area

To me both are true and I don't understand why one is right while the other is not... How are you supposed to think through this?

Raggmop02 · Dec 28, 2012

Okay here I'd an example of a question that I can remember about wound care....
Why is it important to clean a wound from the center and work outwards?
Two were completely off but I got hung up on the last two.
A. Prevent the spread of bacteria
B. Prevent contaminating an already cleaned area
To me both are true and I don't understand why one is right while the other is not... How are you supposed to think through this?

I am not in an RN program yet, but my guess would be B. if you cleaned it from the outside in it would decontaminate what was already cleaned. But that is just a guess. Sorry to chime in.

Born2Care4All · Dec 28, 2012

Not a problem at all. I appreciate your input..I was thinking that was the right answer too but I was also thinking that the whole purpose of cleaning a wound is to prevent it from becoming infected?? I don't know though that's what makes me so frustrated

chrisspeilmanrules84 · Dec 28, 2012

Thinking like a Nurse is a pain in the you know what....it was a problem I had, but for a long list of reasons:

Maybe this post will provide some insight :

https://allnurses.com/general-nursing-student/nursing-model-vs-804680.html#post7089895

x_factor · Dec 28, 2012

Okay here I'd an example of a question that I can remember about wound care....
Why is it important to clean a wound from the center and work outwards?
Two were completely off but I got hung up on the last two.
A. Prevent the spread of bacteria
B. Prevent contaminating an already cleaned area
To me both are true and I don't understand why one is right while the other is not... How are you supposed to think through this?

While technically both are correct, the more correct answer (at least from what I'm seeing in the question) is B. You are, in a way, preventing the spread of bacteria by cleaning the wound. However, you are cleaning it in a specific way (from the center and working outwards) in order to not contaminate an already cleaned area. Cleaning from the outside to the center would raise the risk of contaminating an area that had already been cleaned.

chrisspeilmanrules84 · Dec 28, 2012

@ GreenTea

Some people really just truely dont understand what Nursing is about: it is not a profession of treating your patient and knowing information, and being a human encyclopedia of disease, treatment and drugs like us PA's are (im a PA student, former RN student)...and then leaving the room forgetting all about your pt-provider interaction.....

It's a profession of Caring and providing the supports that the other professions dont provide because its not in their scope of practice. The facts might have been there, the statistics and evidence support it, but the nursing psychological support supercedes it in this case.

In that question you provided, that one actually isnt that bad....its tricky because answer a.) says the phrase "and yet you are here again"...to me that would have come off as a little condesending and I would have avoided that answer just on that alone and likely would have been tricked to overthinking it....but if these 2 are the best answers then its got to be A

But for answer B. "could be worse next time. You have to leave him."....

you dont tell people what to do and neglect the psychological support.