Wound Care for Nursing Home State Survey Question!

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Hi everyone!

I'm new to the annual state survey as I've been in this new job for about 10 months and we have the surveyors at my job now. Tomorrow, they will watch me work on 5 of my residents.

My biggest question is in the details expected during the wound care. I know how to do wound care. I know hand washing is big. I'm fretting over what sort of details they might expect as far as this goes...

I have a resident with 3 wounds. 2 on her bottom and 1 on her heel. I know I will wash my hands prior to any care. Got it. I will discard old dressing and wash my hands. Got it. I'll apply a new dressing and then remove old dressing from wound on her bottom... then wash my hands... etc. Is alcohol gel okay to use in between these 3 wounds or is that a NO NO??? I know that gel and foam cleansers are acceptable at all other times, but will I be expected to wash my hands between the 3 wounds after dressings removed and between the care of each of the 3 after the dressings are applied?? I am probably over-thinking but I don't want to cause any harm to our facility. We really do have a good care reputation and I would like to keep it that way!

I'm freaking out because 2 people told me that they had them watch her only do 1 dressing change... then another person only had them watch her do 3... Now I have 5 residents with 13 wounds between them... Granted, 5 of them are essentially arterial "scabbed" wounds that we are putting betadine on but... I want to die... I'm new to this job, new to state... and I don't want anything to hurt us that I am doing.

I understand the importance of washing my hands after removing the old dressing and after my care is complete. I think the main thing is... If they have 2 and 3 wounds... Wash hands in between each one... and is alcohol gel acceptable BETWEEN wounds 1, 2 and 3?

HELP! LOL :down:

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Specializes in LTC, assisted living, med-surg, psych.

Of course you know best practice, which is to wash your hands between multiple dressing changes. But using alcohol gel is OK, as long as you do a full hand scrub between patients.

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That makes sense. Thanks.

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