Types of Wound Dressings (Nursing)

00:04 Hi, guys, welcome to the concept of wound care.

00:07 So today we're going to talk about just some really basic types of equipment you may use and some basic assessment.

00:14 Now just know there's some really complex wounds out there.

00:19 And we have specially trained advanced nurses that will take care of those really complex wounds that need to be treated.

00:27 However, today we're going to just talk about some really basic concepts.

00:32 So let's take a look at some common types of dressings that you may use for basic wound care.

00:38 So taking a look at this slide, we're going talk about types of tape.

00:43 Yes, that seems a little silly, but I promise there's different uses for this.

00:48 So this first one you see on this screen is surgical foam stretch tape.

00:52 So it sounds exactly what it is.

00:54 So a lot of times, if a patient is post surgical, or what we call post operative, they'll have a dressing and this stuff is great, it's thinner, it does feel a little foamy.

01:05 The nice thing is you could stretch this across the dressing to help with bleeding and help with a little compression to the wound.

01:13 Next, this is a really popular actually type of tape.

01:16 It's called paper tape.

01:18 This is really recommended with someone that's got maybe really frail skin, for example, and their skin is at high risk for tearing if they had adhesive on it.

01:28 So paper tape is really great to use on our elderly patients or someone who has really fragile skin.

01:36 Next, let's take a look at cloth tape.

01:38 This is a great use, it's a lot softer, still has some great adhesive, but it's got some flexibility to it as well.

01:46 We don't use this as quite often as some of the others, but this is also an option for you.

01:51 Now this tape is transparent plastic tape, you're going to use this all the time.

01:56 This is typically the type of tape that's really easy to tear, we're going to see this in our IV start kits.

02:03 And if someone has good intact healthy skin, we use this plastic tape quite a bit.

02:09 This other tape we love.

02:11 This is a soft cloth surgical tape.

02:14 And it's also really good for a post surgery wound something and it also has some flexibility, it's kind of perforated so the patient's skin can breathe.

02:25 So that soft cloth surgical tape.

02:27 You'll also possibly see this on an incision or a wound after surgery.

02:34 Let's take a look at some IV dressings.

02:36 So this is what we call self-adherent wrap.

02:39 This is really helpful, you're going to use this most likely when you discontinue an IV or a central line, for example, to provide a little pressure to reduce bleeding after removal.

02:51 So when you're going to use this, let's say I remove an IV out of my arm here Once I remove the IV, I'll put a gauze pad on top of the insertion site.

03:01 And I use this wrap to wrap around the arm and provide that little bit of pressure.

03:06 The beautiful thing about this wrap is there's no adhesive in it, so it won't tear at the skin like regular tape would.

03:13 It also just adheres to itself so you don't have to have any extra tape to keep it down and around your patients arm.

03:21 Next, we've got an IV transparent dressing, this is going to come in all your IV start kits.

03:27 This is what's going to cover up your IV insertion site.

03:31 It is that clear little plastic window so we can make sure that site has no complications for IV infusions.

03:39 Now let's take a look at a very special dressing.

03:42 This is called an anti microbial foam dressing.

03:46 So the reason why this is so nice is because when you remove it from a wound, it really helps keep the skin intact around it and it doesn't cause a lot of trauma.

03:56 So let's take a look at this image here.

03:58 If you see this standard adhesive dressing, many times and as you can imagine, when you have adhesive on your skin and you pull it, it pulls the skin it can be really traumatic to the skin integrity.

04:10 But if you take a look at the next image at the foam dressing when you remove it, it's nice and it's gentle to remove from the skin.

04:19 Now many times you may hear the name or hear that these are commonly used in your hospitals to prevent pressure ulcers.

04:27 So what I mean by that is this is usually applied to the patient's coccyx for example or the back of their buttocks.

04:34 Now why we do this is this is going to keep the patient's coccyx from rubbing against the bed and providing pressure sores which is a big no no and what we try to avoid.

04:45 Now again, this is really gentle to the skin.

04:48 It's a great for patient comfort, for example, for providing a barrier between that and the pressure of a patient's bed.

04:56 If they're bed bound.

04:57 It does provide a barrier to outside moisture, any sort of bacteria, for example.

05:03 Now, if it's a really moist wound, it won't adhere very well.

05:07 But again, if it's dry, intact skin, it will adhere gently, and it's really safe to remove.

05:14 Now let's look at some other dressing supplies.

05:16 We're a big fan of gauze and you're going to use it a lot.

05:19 So luckily, it comes in different sizes.

05:22 And when you hear this in practice, you may see or hear a nurse say, "Hey, go grab me a 4"x4" ." And this is what we're talking about.

05:29 So there's little tiny and this is just the size, we call it a 2"x2", 4"x4" or a 6"x6".

05:37 And like the 4"x4" you see here, that's usually what we use to cover those insertion sites of the IV for removal.

05:44 Next, we've got gauze rolls, these are really great.

05:48 The reason we use these is let's say a patient's had maybe a wound to post like a amputation, for example.

05:59 The reason why these gauze roles are so nice or even a diabetic foot ulcer.

06:03 The reason why these are so nice is we can wrap it around the extremity to keep out microbes and debris and dirt.

06:10 So this one's a little bit more flexible light comes on a long roll, kind of think about like your toilet paper and you can wrap it around to make sure we're covering those difficult to cover ones.

06:22 So let's look at some other type of dressing supplies.

06:26 This one here is called an ABD pad and this is really helpful for those extra drainie or ooze wounds.

06:33 This one is much thicker than a gauze pad and it's going to absorb quite a bit.

06:38 So one thing to note, when you look at this dressing, here's the thing to be familiar with.

06:42 If you see that line through it, that's what you want to see facing up.

06:47 This piece with the lines kind of waterproof and underneath that is really the absorbent piece that you want touching the wound.

06:55 Now next, here's another great source for wound care.

06:59 It's called a non-adherent pad.

07:01 So when you place this on top of a wound, the beneficial piece about this is when you take it off, it's not going to adhere to that wound and pull off extra skin tissue.

07:12 So again, this is helpful in certain types of wounds during your care.