thanks so much...actually, I did finally come to conclusion that pain needs to be addressed before tending to changing dressings and preventing spread of infection...but I was still second guessing...
thanks for both of your input...I'm just having a difficult time rationalizing the whole thing...according to Maslow's hierarchy, pain (comfort) takes precedence...but I keep thinking, pain won't kill...
I'm figuring out my first nursing dx (and prioritizing) on a patient scenario. The patient (developmentally delayed) has an infection to a deep cut on his foot because he didn't clean wound or change...