child burn wound dressing

[nfleurant]

A nurse is caring for a 9-year-old client who was burned from a fireworks accident. Outline the steps the nurse will take to change the dressing.

Pre-medicate client with prescribed pain medication. Tell child what you are going to do. Gather supplies. Put on gloves remove old dressing, cleanse area with normal saline. Debride and remove old tissue with scissors, apply cream if prescribed and cover wound with a transparent dressing.

Is this correct, would you be giving the child pain medication prior to this procedure?

thank you in advance for the feedback!

[akulahawkRN, ADN, RN, EMT-P]

That is correct. Now why would you suppose that this is a correct course of action to take, especially with a 9 year old child?

This looks suspiciously like homework, so don't expect direct answers especially since it's in the Student Nurse forum... we're going to want you to think this through.

[ktwlpn, LPN]

Consider how many times you should don fresh gloves (washing in between,of course)

[JustBeachyNurse, LPN]

Think about what you are doing. Partial thickness/2nd degree burns are some of the most painful injuries as the nerves are intact whereby full thickness/3rd degree burns (often sustained exposure to extreme temperatures or direct flame for more than a brief moment) all of the dermis & epidermis is damaged including most if not all the nerves so not as painful until tissue regeneration starts. Take a gander at the discussions in the burn nursing forum in the nursing specialty section.

Now if you are debriding a partial thickness and full thickness burn (most common type from a fireworks injury) in a 9 year old (or any patient) do you think you should pre-medicate? Pre-medication is to try and keep the pain below an acceptable threshold and ultimately can reduce the total dose of analgesic needed as opposed to causing pain and treating later.