sterile or what?

[dbay]

When I was in nursing school, we learned how to do wet to dry dressing changes and were told they absolutely must be done with sterile gloves. I did this, and I was very good about it even though I knew other nurses weren't. Then after about 3 years of nursing I went on an assignment to Bakersfield, Ca. The wound/ostomy nurse there changed the wet to dry dressing on one of my patients and did not use sterile gloves. When I questioned her about this she replied with, "are you kidding? You DO NOT need to wear sterile gloves for this dressing change. There is no evidence that this needs to be done. I have attended many conferences and have been in this line of work for 25 years!" I listened to what she said and believed it. After all, I often see the physicians that actually DID THE SURGERY come to the unit to change a dressing and not don sterile gloves. Please help! I am a nurse who LOVES to do things the right way, and I just don't know what to do!

[katonialynn]

I am a nursing student and work as a tech on a trauma unit. I was taught in class that WTD dsg's were sterile but noticed that many nurses at work don't do this. I asked our ET nurses about this and they said that many are just clean technique but the some do still require sterile - just depends on the wound. Often the docs will write for clean or sterile dsg changes.

[smk1, LPN]

As a student, here is my thinking on the matter. It is invasive and carries a high risk of becoming infected (the wound), therefore why NOT make it a sterile dressing change? Particularly in the hospital setting where there are all sorts of bugs running around.

[Boston-RN, RN]

I went to a wound seminar and have been working on occasion with a WCN w/ 25 yrs experience and she NEVER does sterile dressings. When I asked her why she stated wounds are not sterile they are clean at best and only after we clean them. Anything we put in them will be cleaner than the wound itself is.

[sharlynn]

In general clean is okay for wound dressings. There is a difference between a wound dressing and a surgical dressing though.

By the way, wet to dry dressings have fallen out of favor because vital tissue is destroyed in the process. The same goes for Hydrogen Peroxide, Betadine etc.