Wet to Dry Dressing Steps

[silverhalide]

If someone could write out the correct steps for wet to dry dressings that would be great! I am confused as to whether or not you need to use sterile gloves to clean the wound. I have heard that clean is sufficient, but it seems like you should clean with sterile. Also, with clean gloves you would have to place your gauze for cleaning in a seperate container with saline correct?

Thanks!

Kelly

[BabyLady, BSN, RN]

Your instructor is going to be grading you on the steps that is listed in your procedures book, which is generally issued in virtually all nursing programs.

It's the same book that lists steps for inserting foley's, how to teach someone to walk with crutches or cane's, etc.

However, one aspect of wet to dry dressings that instructors love to test on, is that you do not "rewet" the dressing to remove it....it defeats the entire purpose of the wet to dry concept...but very often it's what you see because removing of the dry dressing is painful.

[license.nurse85]

well i don't know what your book says, but i use to be a wound nurse in a nursing home and i never used sterile gloves just clean gloves for wet to dry. i also opened a sterile container of gauze and wet it by pouring saline (the individual packs) into the container, but reality is that most facilities do not want to pay for the sterile gauze. in that case i would make a sterile field to work with. i am just telling you how i did it in the real world but for school make sure you follow the protocol from your book.

[~Mi Vida Loca~RN, ASN, RN]

We were never even tested out on dressing changes in my program. All of the ones I have seen done in the hospital have just been gloves, not sterile gloves. But if this is for a test you will need to make sure you get the proper steps they are grading on because everyone will be different.

Dressing changes at our hospital usually have Dr's orders with all the steps as well. At least from what I have seen.

[studentab]

Just did this lab in our class a few weeks ago - they made it very clear to use sterile gloves when actually putting more gauze into the wound. Clean gloves are used when removing the old dressing but sterile gloves must be used when putting a new dressing on a wound.

[~Mi Vida Loca~RN, ASN, RN]

Just did this lab in our class a few weeks ago - they made it very clear to use sterile gloves when actually putting more gauze into the wound. Clean gloves are used when removing the old dressing but sterile gloves must be used when putting a new dressing on a wound.

Well shoot, guess that info hasn't been passed on to the hospital I am at yet LOL Although I have seen that what we are taught in school and what is done in the real world is often times different.

[studentab]

Well shoot, guess that info hasn't been passed on to the hospital I am at yet LOL Although I have seen that what we are taught in school and what is done in the real world is often times different.

Yes, our instructors often tell us how things are done differently in the local hospitals but tell us to do it the way we're being taught. What's done in nursing school does not = what's done in the real world.

[shortnorthstudent]

Definitely use the steps that your book gives. One poster mentioned about not rewetting the dressing before removal - that's a biggie. The other biggie is making sure that patient is premedicated.

[NSALVADORE]

As posters above mention, different floors, different hospitals may do it differently.. This doesn't really matter for testing purposes, it will matter when you're working as to be sure to follow hospital policy. You need to figure out what the protocol you're being tested on is for now. The protocol I was tested on was clean gloves to remove, sterile to do the dressing, as one poster mentioned we also opened a sterile gauze and poured saline into it. This protocol is exactly what is followed on the floor at the hospital where I do my clinicals.

[silverhalide]

what I am confused about is the cleaning portion. My instructor said you don't need to have sterile to clean the wound, but it seems like you should.

[NSALVADORE]

If your instructor taught you to clean without sterile then follow that technique, it's done either way depending on policy of where you work. I understand how you feel, we do it sterile where I do my clinicals!!

[BabyLady, BSN, RN]

what I am confused about is the cleaning portion. My instructor said you don't need to have sterile to clean the wound, but it seems like you should.

In school and in hospitals, everything that you do has to be "evidence based practice" in other words, you have to be able to statistically back up by research the methods that you use to do X procedure.

It doesn't matter what someone posts here and what method they use in the hospital....clarify that with your instructor again and look it up in your procedures book...I guarantee it will be VERY specific on whether or not to use clean or sterile gloves.

If you miss it on a test, I would wager your intructor will open it up to that page and say, "Here it is...right here in black and white."

Methods change...what one nurse and one facility does may not be what is currently being taught in school and thus, appearing on your NCLEX when you take it.