Wound Care: Cleansing and Packing a Wound

Presented by Carrie Adkins and Clinical Procedure Manual Review Board

12-Month Subscription

Unlimited access to:

Thousands of CE Courses
Patient Education
Home Exercise Program
And more

Subscribe Now

First Chapter Free Buy Course

Video Runtime: 6 Minutes

A packed wound will need to be unpacked, irrigated/cleansed, and repacked. In this training, we’ll review the equipment and procedures for cleansing and packing a wound. This course includes

- Video demonstrations of procedures
- Downloadable procedure guide PDFs
- Tips and best practices for performing these procedures in the home

Debris and excess exudate need to be removed while cleaning to support healthy healing. Properly packing and dressing a wound ensures a wound has the best environment in which to heal. If one packs the wound too tightly, there is no room for new tissue to grow. If a wound is packed with too little dressing, then the packing may get lost or not absorb enough exudate.

This course was reviewed by Danielle Pierotti, RN, PhD, CENP, to ensure the content meets current professional guidelines and best evidence-based practices.

Meet your instructors

Carrie Adkins

Carrie is currently working as a care manager II wound care nurse for myNEXUS. At myNEXUS, she helps home health agencies with their authorizations for wound and ostomy skilled nursing visits, ensuring that patients are receiving proper and appropriate wound and ostomy care. Prior to working at myNEXUS, she had been an RN in…

Read full bio

Clinical Procedure Manual Review Board

The MedBridge Clinical Procedure Manual Review Board ensures the development and maintenance of up-to-date and evidence-based clinical procedures. The review board is composed of leading nurse experts in the field: Danielle Pierotti, RN, PhD, CENP, and Margherita Labson, RN, BSN, MSHSA. The review board is involved in…

Read full bio

Chapters & learning objectives

1. Introduction

This chapter includes an introduction to cleansing and packing a wound, information on all of the equipment needed for this care, and recommended infection control policies.

2. Procedure: Cleansing and Packing a Wound

This chapter will provide a step-by-step procedure guide and video demonstration of wound cleansing and packing.

3. Tips/Precautions/FAQ

This chapter provides tips and considerations for performing these skills in the home. It will also cover related procedures and frequently asked questions.

4. Documentation Guidelines

This chapter provides recommendations on what to note when documenting for patients receiving wound care.

5. Patient Education

This chapter provides information on what education the patient needs to support self-management of their care.

6. Conclusion

This chapter includes learning assessment questions to assess the learner's knowledge of skills covered in this course. A bibliography of referenced material is also included.