Throw away your sterile gloves

[ohbet]

I recently attended a wound care class. The instructor lectures all over the country on wound care,and has lots of credentials.

Any way,she said wound care does not require sterile tecnique,its a clean procedure. The only thing to remember is that any equipment and supplies you take into the room to do the wound treatment must stay in the room.

Well thats news to me. I was taught to use sterlie tecnique for wounds.All the texts also say to use sterile gloves.

She also said its unneccesary to culture wounds.

Is this how you perform wound care,using only clean gloves? and do you still culture wounds?

[hapeewendy]

why would you not culture a wound if it looks like its brewing something?

we culture wounds all the time here.....

as for the drsg thing, wet to dry regular drsgs are clean procedures

wound packing and deep wound care is still done with sterile gloves/technique....

[adrienurse, LPN]

Learn to appreciate the difference between a clean and contaminated wound. A contaminated wound will not heal, and it is a that point when one needs to concern oneself with the bacterial counts, otherwise a healthy wound flora is good.

[sunnygirl272]

exactly, adrie....

greentinged drainage doesn't automatically mean infection...

also, cultures are only beneficial if done properly...

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

Other paramaters to think about:

1. Depends on the clinical setting: hospital, SNF or own home

2. Length of time of wd: Fresh post op vs 3 month old wound; > 1 yr wound

3. RE culture -what's Pts clinical status: Febrile or not ; Stable status vs unstable, chronic wound NOT healing would tend to reculture 3-6 month interval

4. Home care: Sterile gloves for any cath care otherwise clean; CHANGE pair after removal of old drsg, don clean; change again when going to different site etc.

[Nurse K-Bear]

If we are doing wet to dry floor gloves to remove and sterile gloves to pack. We always need to wear sterile gloves to reinforce post op dressings also. All other wounds floor gloves changing gloves after removing old dressing. We still culture wounds to see which antibiotic to use and to see if the patient needs to be placed on MRSA precautions. Based on the guidelines.

[night owl]

I will continue to use sterile gloves for gaping, deep packed wounds until otherwise just like I was taught and just to be sure. Superficial clean wounds is another story. If the wound has a foul odor, puss, reddened and just looks infected, we'll continue to culture. That's the way it's always been and that's the way it'll always be. How else are you going to know if MRSA or VRE is present... if the wound isn't healing? That's one way I suppose...hmmmm very interesting ohbet.

[rachel h, BSN, RN]

I agree, clean gloves for superficial wounds. I see a lot of nurses use only clean technique for wet to dry dressings... their theory is that the patient will not use sterile technique when they go home. I don't know... It just doesn't make sense to me to pack more hospital germs into and already sick patient... sterile technique for me...

[adrienurse, LPN]

This is all very confusing. Who knows of some good literature to back up these practices? What data is this new trend based on?