Outpatient Wound Clinic Case Study

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Introduction Outpatient wound clinics are necessary for patients, so that they can be assessed, cleaned, and learn whether their wounds are properly healing or not, and why. In my visit to the clinic, I was able to observe those three situations and more. Seeing wound care in person, allowed me to learn the basics of caring for wounds, what to assess for, and why it is done.
Explain the nurse’s role in the UMC Outpatient Wound Clinic
In the wound care clinic in UMC, the nurse’s main role is to assess, diagnose, plan, implement, and evaluate a patient's wound, and how far it has progressed within the healing process.When nurses assess, they look for redness, pain, approximation, drainage, swelling, and approximation. The nurse I followed,
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For example, the nurse I followed would find a common ground between the patient and her, and discuss more about it. Specifically, the nurse would give recipes on how to eat healthier and how to make the meals. In doing so, some pain was alleviated because the patients would think about the food and how they could implement that into their daily lives. Also, some professional communication techniques that I saw was between the nurses and CNAs using a silent technique. The CNAs would clean rooms that were about to be used and put patient info into a bin in front of the door. The nurses would then look at the information and prepare the necessary items for the patient. The silent communication between the workers on the floor was efficient and effective. Another form of communication I was also able to see was a situation in which one of the nurses had to call the charge nurse for a difficult patient. The charge nurse was able to remind the nurse of protocol and direct her on what to …show more content…
What I gained personally from this experience was that I do not want to be in wound care until my later years of being a nurse. Or to at least not be within the outpatient wound clinic. I was expecting to see more interesting cases, and came to the realization that I wanted to be in the in patient wound clinic when I graduate. Other than that, I was able to learn how to assess burns, clean wounds, and the importance of patient teaching. I was also able to get over the tension of looking at wounds. In the beginning, I was cringing and curling my toes at the site of wounds, but towards the end I was able to look at them casually.
Conclusion
With my experience with wound care I can now understand the importance of the clinic. Patients are able to have their wounds assessed, cleaned, and are instructed with what to do to, to encourage their wounds to heal at a proper rate. I was also able to notice different forms of communication between the workers on the floor, and how the floor works as a whole. In general, my experience with the wound clinic was a great experience and opened my eyes to what I want to pursue as a student