Wound Care Kit

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Hi everyone!

I am a member of my units Wound Care Committee and have been given the task to come up with a list of items that we would need to include in a wound care kit in order to provide the necessary care to the patient in an efficient manner. I have come up with some ideas, but would GREATLY appreciate input from those that have some insight/experience with wound care or that use wound care kits on their units. Our population varies with regard to the types of wounds that we care for, but the vast majority are stageable and unstageable decubitus wounds. This is the list of included items that I've come up with:

MASK

STERILE SCISSORS

10 ML SALINE FLUSHES

GLOVES

SKIN PREP/SKIN BARRIER

COTTON TIPPED SWABS

MEASURING TOOLS

VARIOUS SIZE GAUZE (2 X 2, 4 X 4)

ABD PADS

VARIOUS SIZE TEGADERM TRANSLUCENT DRESSINGS

VARIOUS SIZE AQUACEL

VARIOUS SIZE MEPILEX

WOUND VAC INSTRUCTIONS

Please give me ideas of things I need to add to this list, also, if any of you use wound care kits on your units, how does the process work? If you do use the kits on your units, how do you work with patient populations that vary in isolation types? My idea is to keep a log within the patient's room, and when wound care is performed, the nurse can check off the supplies that he/she used and at the end of the patients stay they can be charged for the supplies based on that list. Or we can keep track of whats in each kit, check it everyday and charge the patient then. That way the supplies can be managed and restocked if need be. Any additional ideas would be great/helpful. Looking forward to hearing from all of you :yeah:!!

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Specializes in Wound Care , Foot Care,and Geriatrics.

Hi Michelle,

I work at a Foot, Leg, Ulcer clinic; some things I may add would be;

a) cast padding for padded dressings re protection and offloading.

b) blue line for covering arm/leg dressings- over cast padding etc- re fragility - yellow if larger patient

c) non-adherents such a mepitel/jelonet for base layer when needed

d) anti-microbials for localized infection and prophylaxis treatment such as 1) Inadine, 2) Iodasorb 3) Silver products

e) hydrogels and hypergels- for donation of moisture

f) low tac tape for securing dressings ie cast padding

g ) isolation gowns for Iso cases and more messy situations

h)wooden tongue depressors or something that you can put small amount of product on and keep tubes clean not take to bedside

I hope that this may help in your decision making :)

Keep me posted, sounds like a great opportunity!

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WOW, thank you soooo much bliss!!! You have some really great ideas!!! I especially love the one about applying product to wooden tongue depressors and taking them into the isolation rooms to ensure that we aren't contaminating any of the tubes themselves!! Also the idea you had about a non adherent layer for tissue protection is really great too. I cant wait to present these additions to the rest of the group. I will definitely keep you posted, thanks again for your input, it was really very helpful!! Have a great rest of the weekend!

Michelle

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Specializes in retired LTC.

How about C & S culturette swabs for specimens and a pencil & writing paper for measurements and notes? I like this idea, but being in LTC, I think about wa$te of $upplie$ that go into a room but then can't come out. Maybe you could build generic simple, intermediate and complex kits? Your TAR, cardex or care plan could indicate which kit to grab and any special ointments or bandages not in the prepac kits. Good luck with this idea - it sounds like an idea whose time has come.

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Specializes in Wound Care , Foot Care,and Geriatrics.

Hi Michelle and amoLucia,

I hope that we can have some great chats and ideas here; I am taking my advanced wound care course right now and believe it or not- nobody is chatting, asking questions or responding! Really disappointing!

Looking forward to chatting with you guys- where do you both live?

I am in B.C, Canada.

Great Ideas amoLucia- I work in LTC as well as Wound Clinic :),

Followyourbliss

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Specializes in retired LTC.

I thiink it was funny that I even responded to this post. Wound care is my SECOND most disliked speciality/area of practice/responsibility in nursing. It's just that my suggestions jumped out (I guess subconsciously wound care could be better for me if there were better systems in place). Just one more suggestion - a mini "boo-boo" kit (like a premoistened saline gauze and an oint impregnated bandaid/sticky bandage). You'd use it for nuisance itty bitty cuts, knicks & scratches, etc. Can you tell how sophisticated I am?!?!? Good luck with your committee and course program. PS - LTC/New Jersey.

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I don't have any great contributory comments, but I work in an outpatient clinic and we make "preps" for each patient when they come in. We make about 50 and have them on hand and stock the rooms with them (in the drawers of our clean supply cart in each room). It consists of:

A blue pad rolled up like a burrito with:

a two pack of sterile swabs with ruler on the package

5 4x4's

1 15ml respiratory bullet (they were cheaper than the 10ml flushes)

This sounds rather simplistic but it works wonderfully. You can clean the wound, probe around with the swabs if necessary, and measure with the package the swabs came in. I find that putting anything over and above this in the "prep" generally leads to waste.

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