Mad at myself right now. :(

Published

Specializes in Med/Surge, Psych, LTC, Home Health.

So, I'm actually one of only 2-3 nurses at my small hospital who

is any good at applying Wound Vacs.

We have a lady who currently has a gigantic wound on her

lower leg. As in, the entire lower leg is a wound, beefy red

with slough here and there.

I tried. I tried to get the Wound Vac dressing on.

I failed. :( The patient, after Percocet, Dilaudid,

crying and screaming, telling me to stop... I had

to give up and cover the leg back up with a

dressing.

I feel like crap. :(

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Specializes in Psych (25 years), Medical (15 years).
I feel like crap. :(

Oh!

We are our own worst critic, aren't we NurseCard?

Sometimes our best just isn't good enough. You did what you could. You tried. Sometimes goals cannot be reached.

Beat yourself up for ten minutes and then get on with your life, okay?

The best to you, NurseCard!

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Specializes in Med/Surge, Psych, LTC, Home Health.

Thank you. :) This poor woman is likely going to lose that leg. She came

from another hospital where apparently she was getting some type of

wound vac to the leg, but I really do not know for sure how that was

being done. I'm experienced with wound vac, but this woman's leg is

just beyond me, at least for tonight. :(

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Stop beating yourself up. The application of wound vacs is specialized. I would never attempt to do it.

What you did wrong is ..not consulting the wound care nurse or surgical resident to apply the treatment. Any time the patient is crying and screaming.. it's time to stop and get help.

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Specializes in Med/Surge, Psych, LTC, Home Health.
Stop beating yourself up. The application of wound vacs is specialized. I would never attempt to do it.

What you did wrong is ..not consulting the wound care nurse or surgical resident to apply the treatment. Any time the patient is crying and screaming.. it's time to stop and get help.

The wound care nurse is apparently off for a while. Surgical resident??

We're a very very small hospital. :) She doesn't even have a surgical

consult right now.

I suppose I could have called VAC and asked to speak to a nurse, but I feel

like the patient will be just as well off with the gauze dressing until

morning. She came to us from another hospital with the gauze dressing,

and an order to apply the VAC and change M,W,F.

I had a home health patient once with a very large wound on her

leg, quite similar to what this lady has. The difference was, while

it was a very large wound, it was all on the top of her leg

and had defined borders. I managed to get a wound vac

on her leg, and running.

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Specializes in ICU, LTACH, Internal Medicine.

In LTACH we sometimed did funny things with vacs. "Circular" dressings, two vacs for one wound, multiple bridges.

But wounds are not permanent. They change all the time and what was working one day may stop being effective.

Don't kill yourself over it.

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Specializes in Hospice, Palliative Care.

NurseCard, does the Wound Vac have a help line number on the unit? When I took a wound vac training class, the one thing we were told to remember is to call the helpline if we needed assistance in uising the device, be it bridging, troubleshooting or even how to hande certain types of wounds. Worth a try...

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Specializes in Med Surg.

Well, often that's kinda how you get good at it.

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I haven't changed a vac dressing since nursing school. Only wocn change those things at my hospital. If I attempted one now, it would take an hour and with instructions printed in front of me.

You did what you could. Sometimes that isn't enough but that's life.

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Your morality is good. I went to the ER with a BB in my ear and the male nurses started taking it out and it hurt like hell. I screamed since I was 11 so they stopped. They without telling me called 4 security guards to hold me down against my will when I told them I wanna be out to sleep for this. They tried to pull it out while I screamed at the top of my lungs and made a bloody mess and failed to pull it out. I went home with the BB in my ear and a bloody ear. Had to go see a doctor who kindly put me to sleep and pulled out the BB. You compared to those nurses is like a heaven goddess.

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wound vacs can be extremely tricky especially on legs with large wounds. Sometimex we have to lose the battle to win the war.

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So, I'm actually one of only 2-3 nurses at my small hospital who

is any good at applying Wound Vacs.

We have a lady who currently has a gigantic wound on her

lower leg. As in, the entire lower leg is a wound, beefy red

with slough here and there.

I tried. I tried to get the Wound Vac dressing on.

I failed. :( The patient, after Percocet, Dilaudid,

crying and screaming, telling me to stop... I had

to give up and cover the leg back up with a

dressing.

I feel like crap. :(

I know. it sucks. They work, but the on off is rough.

It's okay. Okay? It really is. Come sit by me and have coffee.

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