WCEI Blog

By Keisha Smith, MA, CWCMS

January 6, 2017

Each stoma is unique. Get more information on the different types of stoma and learn the ideal characteristics of a healthy stoma.

By Keisha Smith, MA, CWCMS

December 7, 2016

Determining a patient’s ABI is a vital part of wound care, but unfortunately this step is often avoided … or even omitted. Here’s why this happens, and how you can change it. Have you ever faced a seemingly daunting task, and so you do everything in your power to avoid it? Like renewing a driver’s […]

By Keisha Smith, MA, CWCMS

November 25, 2016

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 […]

By Angie Commorato

November 11, 2016

Check out these best practices for trimming your diabetic patient’s toenails to help prevent foot ulceration. Did you know that a whopping 10-25% percent of all patients with diabetes ultimately develop a foot ulcer – a diagnosis that brings a five-year mortality rate of nearly 50%? Consistent foot care, such as regular screenings, footwear assessment […]

By Keisha Smith, MA, CWCMS

October 28, 2016

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 […]

By Keisha Smith, MA, CWCMS

October 21, 2016

Even the best wound care detectives are challenged by this sneaky culprit that delays healing. Here’s how to identify biofilm bacteria and solve the case. Ready for some serious detective work? In this wound-care case, we will try to find and invade the elusive biofilm bacterial hide-out. So the questions are: where are those microbes […]

By Keisha Smith, MA, CWCMS

October 7, 2016

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 […]

By Keisha Smith, MA, CWCMS

September 14, 2016

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, […]

By Keisha Smith, MA, CWCMS

September 9, 2016

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 […]

By Keisha Smith, MA, CWCMS

August 17, 2016

An ostomy patient reviews questions that many patients with ostomies commonly bring up, so you as a provider can provide better osotomy care.