Wound Vac

[Choircat]

Who changes your wound vac dressings? RN or LPN?

[redshiloh]

Either one.

[begalli]

Rn - the wound would be assessed at that time.

[michw2]

PT does our wound care. And most places where I have done clinicals it is also been PT.

[Melody007_FNP-C, APRN]

I am a LPN.........(Soon to be RN!)

we have on average 4-5 pt's on wound vacs on our unit.

So either LPN or RN.

[actioncat]

PT does our wound care. And most places where I have done clinicals it is also been PT.

really? PT. that is interesting. I have never heard of that. What is the reason that PT does the wound care?

[Kudra]

in our facility, Physio only does drsg changes if a pt. requires hydrotherapy... otherwise, it's the RN/LPN who's caring for the pt. who changes VAC drsg... or the ET nurse, if it's really, really complicated...

[memphispanda, RN]

PT does our wound vacs. They are trained to do it, we are not, so that's the reasoning behind it at my place of employment!

[plumrn, BSN, RN]

Rn or LPN at our facility. Our PT do a lot of wound care referrals also.

[live4today, RN]

I have worked at hospitals where the wound care nurse or the burn unit nurses do wound vac dressing changes. :)

[princess_j]

Although at the home care agency I worked at had the LPN's & RN's changing the vacs - PT's are trained to do wound care. I have worked at a facility where the PT's did hydro therapy and a type of electro therapy. They were really very good at it.

[rnmaven]

really? PT. that is interesting. I have never heard of that. What is the reason that PT does the wound care?

My son is applying to colleges for a PT major and I was also surprised to learn about the role of Physical Therapy in wound care. They have an entire semester devoted to wound care and are actually trained in wound debridement. I have a friend whose son is a PT in the Navy and he's spending 6 months learning wound debridement.

Although RN's are caring for the wound vac and wound care, I believe that this is a specialized area and should not just be added to the list of things that the RN is doing at the bedside. At some teaching hospitals I see the RN's functioning as wound care specialists......that would be better than just having me do the care on something I'm not totally familiar with.