Skin & Wound Management posts
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Wound Care Myths: 5 More Debunked

By Keisha Smith, MA, CWCMS

Whether it involves heel protectors, anti-embolism stockings, or letting wounds “breathe,” there are still plenty of wound-care myths circulating out there. Ready for the truth? You can handle it. Do you use wet-to-dry dressings in order to save money? Have you administered oral antibiotics to treat infected wounds? And do you follow physicians’ orders for […]

12 Wound Care Fun Facts

By Keisha Smith, MA, CWCMS

Beer, honey and grease? The history of wound care includes all three, and much more. Go ahead … amaze your friends and colleagues with these wound care fun facts. We’ve come a long way in wound care, especially over the past 100 years or so. But wound care techniques are as old as humankind, with […]

Intake + Output = Big Documentation Problems

By Keisha Smith, MA, CWCMS

Inaccurate and incomplete intake and output (I&O) records pose a problem in litigation, as well as a risk to the patient who requires monitoring of fluid balance for medical reasons.  “Would you agree that the nurses did not know how to do basic arithmetic?” Of course nurses know how to add and subtract, yet I […]

Pressure Injuries with Cartilage? Stage Away

By Keisha Smith, MA, CWCMS

When it comes to wound care, staging pressure injuries with visible or palpable cartilage doesn’t have to be complicated. Here’s what to do.   If you’ve ever treated wounds around the ear or in the area just below the bridge of the nose, you know how very little subcutaneous tissue there is. As a result, […]

Your Patient Died: Should You Send the Family a Card?

By Keisha Smith, MA, CWCMS

Bereavement care is part of the job, no matter how difficult it is to talk about death and deal with grieving family members. “Callous disregard.” These two little emotionally loaded words are how the plaintiff complaint summed up the following story from a grieving daughter named Sally.* In her deposition, Sally recounted how nice and […]

Wound Detective Series: When Wounds Won’t Heal

By Keisha Smith, MA, CWCMS

Here’s how wound care detectives can solve the mystery of chronic wounds that fail to heal. Ready for some serious detective work? In this case, our focus is on those chronic wounds that just won’t heal, including epibole (which happens in full thickness wounds). And as we know, this rolled wound edge inhibits healing. But […]

Maceration and Hydrogels? Just Say Whoa

By Keisha Smith, MA, CWCMS

How do you use hydrogel dressings to keep wounds moist without causing maceration? Very carefully.   If you’ve ever taken a long bath or spent an afternoon in a swimming pool, you’re familiar with what happens to your hands and feet: they become soft, white, and wrinkled up like prunes. This is a classic case […]

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