Nurses Cornered!

Cornered for Evaluations

It's that time of year...again.

The boss called and needs to go with me to a home visit to evaluate my nursing skills. In and of itself, this isn't a bad thing, it's necessary. Knowing that does absolutely nothing for my sanity or my nerves.

I asked if we could choose a wound care patient.

No problem she said.

Another call..."Oh, there's a patient that has a wound-vac, would that be ok?"

"You bet!" I said, "I'm the Queen of Wound-Vac's."

Of course, before we could make the visit, which was to be today, the wound vac was discontinued and the patient is getting a dressing change every other day.

Nuts!

For those of you not familiar, the Wound-Vac system is a nifty little machine that suctions out drainage, and pulls healthy red blood cells into a wound. Healing time is cut dramatically. They are fabulous devises. If you buy stock, get some in this company, it's ticker symbol is KCI.

I've worked with Wound-Vac's for 6 years. They are a gift from heaven.

Oddly enough, since I started nursing in 1993, I've asked doctors why they don't put a topical antibiotic into the wound bed. They looked at me like I was Snake-Woman-From-Idiotand. "Because the infection is in the tissues, not the wound bed."

Duh.

I'd counter with, "However, when the tissues drain into the wound bed, it becomes contaminated."

Deer in the headlights look back at me.

About a year ago, KCI came out with a new Wound-Vac for hospital use. You guessed it. It has an antibiotic chamber that pumps antibiotics into the wound bed, lets it sit a while, then sucks the antibiotic out, and continues to work as a Wound-Vac until the next round of antibiotics is due.

I'm just glad someone picked up on that bit of cosmic genius and invented this machine. It's already saved countless limbs. Amazing.

The joint visit with my boss...rescheduled for sometime in the future. Halleluiah.