wound care plan

[twooten]

Help, I am working on a care plan for a home health client with venous stasis ulcers. We are using unna boots weekly and also silver strips on the actual ulcer. I have two problems, i cant find any literature to support using a silver strip with an unna boot, is this normal? (obviously i didnt write the order) and two i am really not sure what an acceptable outcome would be (my main issue is impaired skin integrity with other diagnosis being ineffective tissue perfusion, ineffective therapeutic regimen, and altered physical mobility we can only pick four). I feel like saying the ulcer will be better is a little hopeful and I would have a hard time guessing on the timeline for that. should i go with a 50% decrease in tow weeks or what, improvement is too vauge, ahh. HELP.

[Daytonite, BSN, RN]

hi, twooten, and welcome to allnurses!

having had stasis ulcers on my leg as well i can tell you that these things can take a long time to heal. the silver strips act as an antiseptic on the wound to prevent infection. the unna wrap has zinc oxide in it which is soothing to the skin. it's hard to predict specific outcomes. however, i would go with something about keeping the wound free of infection and/or that the wound will show evidence of healing by being smaller in measurement.

there is a website called world wide wounds where you might find some information:

• http://www.worldwidewounds.com/