Wound Assessment, Healing Principles, and Identifying Infection
Presented by Nora Barrett
12-Month Subscription
Unlimited access to:
- Thousands of CE Courses
- Patient Education
- Home Exercise Program
- And more
Nonfinancial: Nora Barrett has no competing nonfinancial interests or relationships with regard to the content presented in this course.
Wounds can be overwhelming to a practitioner who is not familiar with assessment and principles of healing. This course is designed for healthcare practitioners who encounter wounds from injury, surgery, or trauma throughout the continuum of a patient’s care (inpatient, outpatient, or home care) and will cover in-depth wound assessment, healing expectations and principles to guide managing the wound, and identification of infection. These key areas will give the practitioner an exact method of assessment, including terms for documentation and communication with team members, that sets the stage for proper treatment and principles to guide decision-making and problem-solving through challenging scenarios to promote healing toward the ultimate goal of wound closure.
This course is part of the MedBridge CHT Prep Program. Learn more about the full prep program here: MedBridge CHT Prep Program.
Meet your instructor
Nora Barrett
Nora Barrett graduated from the Program in Occupational Therapy at Washington University in St. Louis in 1997. She has been a practicing occupational therapist since 1998 and a certified hand therapist since 2006. She spent her early career as an inpatient therapist at rehabilitation centers, acute care hospitals and burn…
Chapters & learning objectives
1. Wound Assessment
This segment will cover critical components of wound assessment that are used as a foundation for documentation and a comparison of status between treatments or sessions to indicate change. Assessment is profoundly important to determine if wound healing is occurring, to identify problems or delays in wound healing, and to document progression toward closure.
2. Wound Healing Principles
Foundational principles of wound healing will be covered and discussed in depth to provide the why behind what we do as practitioners to treat wounds and promote healing toward closure. Wound cleansing and wound bed preparation outline specific terms and times for necessary treatment so the practitioner is more comfortable and confident guiding wound care.
3. Identifying Infection
The practitioner providing wound care must be able to identify when a wound is not healing properly and if infection is a likely source of problematic healing. This is critical information to describe to a referring provider if higher-level treatment or prescription medication is needed. If infection is not identified or treated, wound healing is stalled and closure cannot occur.
