wound Vacs

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Had an interview with bayada yesterday...Went great....they told me the do a lot of wound vacs which has me a little worried.....I haven't seen one inn about 15 years and I never had to take care of one since the were fairly new when I last worked on the floor

Any tips tricks hints thoughts on them would be appreciated

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Specializes in Home health.

You should ask bayada about their wound vac training also, contact KCI for their literature. Wound vac's aren't difficult, but changing wound vac dressings can be very hard on your back hopefully, they'll limit you to one a day. I worked for an agency that many times had me doing 2 wound vac's a day which is very time consuming. I don't have back problems, but my back was killing me by the end of the day.

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Thank you....as far as I know they will train but I like to gather info when I can...I plan on doing some online research as so as I get a chance

Thank you

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Specializes in Home health.

Here's the KCI website specifically wound vac application videos. It will help you with the steps, but it won't replace hands on experience.

Wound Care Education and Training | KCI

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Specializes in Family Practice & Obstetrics.
Thank you....as far as I know they will train but I like to gather info when I can...I plan on doing some online research as so as I get a chance

Thank you

In my experience, some simple things I found helpful was to give prn pain meds a decent amount of time prior to changing as the sponge tends to dry up and extracting it from the wound can be so painful. Also directly related to that.... I would bring a whole bottle of ns- i could soak the sponge so I could remove it without causing much pain (its like tearing clothing off a dried cut) . I also did many vac drsgs on a medical floor so a huge 65+ population. With age comes conditions like dementia and if they were mobile they required redirection +++++. I actually had one lady pull the entire drsg off as she kept forgetting she had to take the vac machine with her! Just a bit of helpful advice ! Best of luck :)

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Specializes in Home health.

Those are good points. Wound vac's require a lot of practice so, ask if you can do a few of them during your training before they cut you loose.

I've also found that using lots of skin prep helps to keep the dressing in place.

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Awesome...Thank you for the info and for the link

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I'm not a nurse, but recently I had to do my own wound vac. I saw a billiant suggestion in one of these threads. The wound care nurse used the clear plastic packaging that the sponge came in to make a template for the sponge she had to cut. She pointed out that the inside surface of the packaging was as clean as the sponge. She would lay the clear plastic from the packaging over the wound and trace the outline. Then using that tracing as a template she would cut out the sponge. It made it very easy to get the sponge cut to the appropriate size and shape. I thought it was a billiant idea and used it myself. You can probably find her original posting in a fairly recent thread (since March I think.)

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Specializes in ICU, BURNS, TRAUMA, TRANSPORT, HH.

Don't be too freaked out by the wound vacs...just like anything else in health care, you can learn to use it effectively with a bit of practice. There are some good suggestions here.

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Specializes in ICU.

I do inservice for smith &nephews negative pressure wound therapy ( I actually like it a lot more than KCI's wound vac) and prior to taking on this venture I saw them as intimidating. Turns out they really aren't. Your cutting foam to fit the wound and applying the dressing. I think applying the dressing is more taxing physically than anything else. You want to really review trouble shooting with the home client, though. That's probably the biggest part of it. The respective websites have good educational tools to guide you.

I actually have the S&N version in my home with all the dressing kits because I use my own to inservice. The clinical educator who trained me suggested I use a watermelon to practice, cutting " wounds" out of the rind and applying a dressing. I haven't tried it yet, but you might want to try!

Good luck, don't be too intimidates!

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Specializes in Pulmonary, Lung Transplant, Med/Surg.
Those are good points. Wound vac's require a lot of practice so, ask if you can do a few of them during your training before they cut you loose.

I've also found that using lots of skin prep helps to keep the dressing in place.

Skin prep around the boarder when you're all done is great too! It tends to close up any tiny tiny openings that may have been created!

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Great tips everyone....Thank you

I read up on then a little...i.m sure i'll learn all this stuff but are they continuous things like you turn them on and leave and go back another day to change them or is it something you put on and let it run for a bit then take it off and put a plain dressing on before you leave the house

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