What about the dressing? Revitalizing the importance of wound dressing selection in all facets of wound management.
What about the dressing? Revitalizing the importance of wound dressing selection in all facets of wound management.
By Andy Marxen BAN, RN, BSN, CWCN, MBA
What about the dressing? Revitalizing the importance of wound dressing selection in all facets of wound management.
Webinar Topic: Wound Care
CE Credit(s): 1.0
Length: 50 minutes
Webinar Description:
With the explosion of new technologies in wound care the wound care clinician can have a tendency to overlook the importance of wound dressings in addition to how dressing function contributes to healing. Approximately 4000 wound dressings are on the market today. This abundance makes dressing selection confusing for even experts in wound management.
Even with new cellular-based and tissue products (CTP), treatment modalities, and artificial intelligence (AI) in assessment, wound dressings are the common denominator that can enhance outcomes or cause new technologies to underperform. Wound dressings are used over and under CTP, before and after any adjunctive wound treatment or debridement, and in spite of AI for guided debridement and wound assessment.
Categorization of wound dressings as it is done today makes dressing selection complicated. CMS’s Surgical Dressing Reimbursement policy categorizes wound dressings by the highest percentage of ingredient (substrate) in the dressing, regardless of the function. This categorization by substrate and not by the dressing function may limit a dressing’s full potential for wound healing. Manufacturers of new advanced dressings with combinations of substrates or new ingredients lack the knowledge, funding, or ability to apply for a new product category, limiting innovation in dressing technology. Even with these limitations, clinicians have options, but need a process to categorize dressings other than by substrate.
This presentation will review mechanisms of action, or functional abilities, of wound dressings, wound assessments necessary to match dressing function. Furthermore, we will review the use of wound dressings with new wound dressing technologies. Detriments of improper dressing selection and the importance following manufacturer guidelines will be discussed. Finally, building a formulary with the greatest versatility will be reviewed.
Webinar Learning Objectives:
Upon completion of the program, the participant will be able to:
- Explain how improper dressing categorization can impact practice.
- Recall the 3 wound assessments that drive wound dressing selection.
- Discuss the functional abilities of wound dressings and how they match present clinical goals.
- Describe the importance of following manufacturers package inserts for wound dressings as well as for CTPs and adjunctive modalities.
- Recall the importance of developing a versatile product formulary for your specific practice.
Nancy Morgan Wound Care is an approved provider of continuing nursing education by the California Board of Registered Nursing-Continuing Education Provider license/certification number 17756. 1.0 Contact Hour (s).
