Finding common ground: Surviving wound care communication

By Jennifer Oakley, BS, RN, WCC, DWC, OMS

The author describes how to overcome challenges to effective communication in the healthcare setting.

Accurate communication among healthcare professionals can spell the difference between patient safety and patient harm. Communication can be a challenge, especially when done electronically. With an e-mail or a text, you can’t hear the other person’s voice or see the body language, so it’s easy to misinterpret the words. (more…)

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What you need to know about collagen wound dressings

wound collagen dressing

By Nancy Morgan, RN, BSN, MBA, WOC, WCC, DWC, OMS

Description

Collagen, the protein that gives the skin its tensile strength, plays a key role
in each phase of wound healing. It attracts cells, such as fibroblasts and keratinocytes, to the wound, which encourages debridement, angiogenesis, and reepithelialization. In addition, collagen provides a natural scaffold or substrate for new tissue growth. (more…)

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Debridement options: BEAMS made easy

By Cindy Broadus, RN, BSHA, LNHA, CHCRM, CLNC, CLNI, WCC, DWC, OMS

At one time or another, all wound care professionals encounter a chronic wound, defined as a wound that fails to heal in an orderly and timely manner. Globally, about 67 million people (1% to 5% of the world’s population) suffer chronic wounds. In the United States, chronic wounds affect 6.5 million people and cost more than $25 billion annually to treat. (more…)

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Foam dressing

By Nancy Morgan, MBA, BSN, RN, WOC, WCC, CWCMS, DWC

Each month, Apple Bites brings you a tool you can apply in your daily practice.

Description

•    Semipermeable polyurethane foam dressing
•    Nonadherent and nonlinting
•    Hydrophobic or waterproof outer layer
•    Provides moist wound environment
•    Permeable to water vapor but blocks entry of bacteria and contaminants
•    Available in various thicknesses with or without adhesive borders
•    Available in pads, sheets, and cavity dressings (more…)

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