Hospice Wound Care: 3 Strategies for Better Patient Outcomes

October 21st, 2020
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Providing wound care for hospice patients is an important aspect of delivering comprehensive, end-of-life care.

While some hospice services have wound care specialists on staff or access to on-call, contracted wound care services, others do not.

Hospice providers without wound experts on staff often try to manage patients’ wounds on their own, said Joni Brinker, MSN/MHA, RN, WCC.

Brinker is an Ohio-based consultant and clinical nurse educator with Optum Hospice Pharmacy Services of Eden Prairie, Minn.

They only summon a wound care specialist if a problem develops, she added.

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Posted in Wound and skin management, Wound assessment, Wound care education | Comments Off on Hospice Wound Care: 3 Strategies for Better Patient Outcomes

Non-Weightbearing vs. Offloading: Is There a Difference?

October 14th, 2020
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Have you ever been confused about the difference between non-weightbearing and offloading?  

These wound care terms are often used when referring to the treatment of diabetic and neuropathic ulcers and pressure injuries.

Both can be critical in the successful healing of either type of wound. However, they are not the same thing.

Let’s begin with defining the terms.

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Posted in Diabetic wound care, Pressure injury, Wound and skin management, Wound assessment | Comments Off on Non-Weightbearing vs. Offloading: Is There a Difference?

Wound Healing Research: The Need for Grants Is Widespread

October 7th, 2020
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If you’re a wound care clinician, you’re well-aware more research is needed on wound care and wound healing.

Locating evidence-based findings on wound healing from literature can be a difficult undertaking.

There is a great need for more research and evidence regarding wound healing not only because of its scarcity, but also because of the pervasiveness and cost of chronic wounds.

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Posted in Wound and skin management, Wound assessment, Wound care education | Comments Off on Wound Healing Research: The Need for Grants Is Widespread

Learn When You Should Apply a Hydrogel Dressing to a Wound

September 30th, 2020
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As wound care clinicians, you must be aware of the different types of wound care dressings, such as hydrogel dressings.

A hydrogel dressing — also known as hydrated polymer dressings — consist of 90% water in a gel base that regulate fluid exchange from the wound surface.

It absorbs small amounts of fluid and donating moisture to the wound bed.

These dressings are available in sheets, amorphous gels, or impregnated gauze and packing strips.

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Posted in Wound and skin management, Wound assessment, Wound care | No Comments »

Wound Treatment: 3 Questions to Help You Determine Appropriate Care

September 24th, 2020
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How many times have you wondered, or questioned, whether an ordered wound treatment was appropriate? 

I would not be not surprised if you said, “More often than I would like.” Unfortunately, that is the reality for wound care specialists today.

According to a 2018 BMJ Open article, nurse researchers found an overuse of wound treatments with limited evidence and low value. They also found an underuse of evidence-based treatments.

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Posted in Wound and skin management, Wound assessment, Wound care, Wound care documentation, Wound care litigation | Comments Off on Wound Treatment: 3 Questions to Help You Determine Appropriate Care

Hand Hygiene Tips for Providing Wound Care in Challenging Settings

September 16th, 2020
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Hand hygiene is nothing new in healthcare. It has become increasingly important throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.  

As a wound care nurse, you know hand hygiene is essential in preventing infections when providing patient care, as we discuss in the blog post “The Case of the Dirty Wound Care Clinic.”

If you provide care outside of the traditional clinical settings, such as a hospital or a wound care clinic, you know how difficult it can be to maintain good hand hygiene. Without running water, gloves or sanitizer, the risk of infection or its spread is evident. 

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Posted in Infection, Wound and skin management, Wound care, Wound care litigation | Comments Off on Hand Hygiene Tips for Providing Wound Care in Challenging Settings

Explore when to use a collagen wound dressing on your patients

September 9th, 2020
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As wound care certified (WCC) clinicians, you should be aware of the types of dressings available to treat patients in your care.

Wound care dressings come in various shapes, sizes and have indications for their use, including collagen wound dressings.

Let’s explore which types of dressings are focused on collagen.

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Posted in Moist wound dressing, Wound and skin management, Wound assessment, Wound care | No Comments »

Wound temperature can affect the wound healing process

September 2nd, 2020
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A patient’s core body temperature must be above 91.4 degrees Fahrenheit and below 107.6 for wound healing to occur.

The loss of moisture from any surface by evaporation is accompanied by cooling of the surface. So, as wound tissues lose moisture, a cooling effect occurs resulting in lower wound temperature.

Even a decrease of only 2 degrees Celsius is sufficient enough to affect the biological healing process of your patients. This is because cells and enzymes function optimally only at normal body temperature.

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Posted in Wound and skin management, Wound assessment, Wound care, Wound care education | No Comments »

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy: Learn the fundamentals in wound care

August 27th, 2020
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When you hear the words hyperbaric oxygen, you probably think of a troubled scuba diver with decompression sickness in need of immediate live-saving medical care.

But hyperbaric oxygen therapy — HBOT for short — is also a go-to therapy routinely used in wound care.

To learn the basics about HBOT, we spoke with wound care experts in the U.S. and abroad.

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Posted in Diabetic wound care, Infection, Venous ulcer, Wound and skin management, Wound care | Comments Off on Hyperbaric oxygen therapy: Learn the fundamentals in wound care

Wild on Wounds (WOW) is going virtual this year. Here’s what you can expect

August 20th, 2020
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Wild on Wounds (WOW)

The world has drastically changed with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

One alteration to our daily lives is the practice of avoiding crowds in an effort to slow down the spread and decrease risk of exposure to coronavirus.

So, for everyone’s health and well-being, we’ve moved our popular Wild on Wounds Conference (WOW) to a virtual format this year.

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Posted in Wild on Wounds Conference, Wound and skin management, Wound care education | No Comments »

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