proper chest tube dressing

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Specializes in hospice, ortho,clinical review.

Hi All

I guess it's not good to use several sources when studying.....I'm getting conflicting answers

If a chest tube becomes dislodged, is it an occlusive/vaseline dressing or just a sterile piece of dry gauze that goes over it?

I'm seeing the former in my NCLEX texts but no mention of it just being taped on 3 sides as I believe we were taught, but a search on the web from a nurses info site said you should err on the side of caution and just use the sterile piece of gauze.

Which is NCLEX looking for? Also is it the same type of dressing for a chest trauma or sucking chest wound?

Thanks

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Specializes in Peds.

All my books say occlusive/vaseline gauze as the drsg of choice....it should be taped on 3 sides, not all 4, as well.

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