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Rx Pad

Improving the Health of Your Clinical Practice
Feb
28

Hyperbaric Safety Tip: How Accidents Happen

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For some accidents there is a clear “smoking gun.” However, most accidents are caused by a combination of factors, each of which contributes in some manner. Often these factors accumulate over some period of time preceding the accident. This chapter addresses the factors that foster conditions under which accidents are more likely to happen and discusses some of the steps to be taken to avoid them. Also included is a case history illustrating several of the factors.

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Feb
22

Decision Making For Dressing Product Selection

Wound-Care-Wednesday_22 FEB 2023

Dressing product selection is based on comprehensive assessments of the wound and the patient’s overall physiology. Determining whether a person’s body can support complete wound healing requires clinical skills and significant knowledge of the many barriers to healing, including which impediments can be influenced by the wound care team and which cannot. When making decisions for treatment, one should consider whether the wound has healing potential, is more likely maintenance wound, or has evolved to a non healable ulcer unable to garner the endogenous constituents needed for wound closure and healing.(12,16) For instance, a patient with end-stage cancer who has a Stage 4 infected pressure injury located on the sacrum may benefit from interventions aimed at pain and odor control, addressing the infection, support for activities of daily living, and other health-related quality-of-life issues addressed through a palliative care approach rather than aggressive debridement and advanced dressings looking at the end goal of wound closure.(16) In such a case, maintenance wound care would be more appropriate.

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Feb
15

Goal-Directed Wound Care And Dressing Selection

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Determing the best interventions, including dressing selection, for patients and their wounds requires looking at the situation holistically. Creating the treatment plan for a chronic wound is dependent upon many diverse patient, wound, economic, and social considerations. The dressing selection goes beyond simply choosing a product to cover the wound. Details assessments of the patient and wound should drive the components of goal-directed wound care. The health-care provider must determine the etiology of the wound, patient comorbidities that may impair the wound healing process (e.g. diabetes and blood glucose levels), nutrition/hydration status, systemic and local tissue oxygenation, and patient/familiy concerns such as pain and odor issues. Each of these factors contribute to creating an individualized plan for care for choosing the most appropriate products and interventions. 

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Feb
13

WCEP Welcomes Dr. Michael White as Incoming Medical Director for Wound Care Education Partners

We are pleased to announce Michael White, MD, UHM, MMM, CWS as the incoming Medical Director for Wound Care Education Partners. Dr. White is assuming the role from the outgoing Medical Director, Helen Gelly, MD, FUHM, FACCWS, UHM/ABPM.

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Mar
16

Part 3: Evaluation and Management of the Diabetic Foot Ulcer - Classification of Diabetic Foot Ulcers, Other Wound Grading Systems

Evaluation and Management of the Diabetic Foot Ulcer - Classification of Diabetic Foot Ulcers

In this 3 - Part series, we're looking at the most commonly used classification scales currently in use to classify diabetic foot ulcers, including: 

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Mar
04

Part 2: Evaluation and Management of the Diabetic Foot Ulcer - Classification of Diabetic Foot Ulcers, Wagner Grading System

Evaluation and management of the diabetic foot ulcer: Wagner grading system

There are many scales that attempt to classify diabetic foot ulcers, but few have been validated and none have demonstarated prognistic reliabilty or accuracy with regard to healing a DFU. Some scales focus on anatomy (depth of ulcer), some include vasular assessment, and others include the presence or absence of infection.

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Mar
03

Part 1: Evaluation and Management of the Diabetic Foot Ulcer

Evaluation and Management of the Diabetic Foot Ulcer Part 1

Diabetes mellitus is an epidemic of global proportion with a steadily rising prealence of disease. There were an estimated 28.9 million (21 million diagnosed, 8.1 million undiagnosed) adults with diabetes mellitus in the United States in 2012. The prevalence of diabetes mellitus among adults has quadrupled from 1980 to 2014. This rate continues to rise, with 1.7 million new cases reported in 2012. Globally, it is estimated that there are 422 million adults with diabetes mellitus. 

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Mar
01

Part 3: Preparing the Patient for Wound Care

Part 3: Preparing the Patient for Wound Care

This is the third and final installment in the series about how to prepare your patient for wound care treatment.

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Mar
01

Part 2: Preparing the Patient for Wound Care

Preparing The Patient For Wound Care

This is the second in the series about how to prepare your patient for wound care treatment. In Part 1 we covered Transfers, Patient Comfort, Pain Scales; if you missed Part 1, you can read it here 

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Feb
26

Preparing the Patient for Wound Care (Part 1)

Part 1 Preparing the Patient for Wound Care

In this series we're going to breakdown the main techniques to comfort patients when preparing for wound care treatment. 

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