Wound Care
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The competency of Care Delivery to be discussed in this paper will be that of wound care, in particular, leg ulcers and surgical wounds. It will give a description of what a wound is; how they are classified and the healing process. The paper will look at how my knowledge, skills and attitudes have developed during my training in relation to this aspect of care. To achieve this, I will look at how I perceived what wound care should have been while working as a care assistant within a hospital setting, and during my training as a Student Nurse. It will also look at what I was told to be the correct way to look after someone requiring wound care by the nursing professionals that I was working with at that time. To do this, I will use examples from clinical practice. However, to keep patient and staff confidentiality, all names will be changed (UKCC 1992).
A wound can be defined as 'an injury to the body that involves a break in the continuity of tissues or of body structures' (Blackwell's Dictionary of Nursing 1998). Wounds can be divided into four categories: Contusion (bruise), Abrasion (graze), Laceration (tear) and Incision (cut) (Mallet &Dougherty 2000).
Wounds can be classified in many ways dependant on what information is required and what action is to be taken on the data...