Day in the Life of a Wound Care Nurse

Today I shadowed the two WOCNs (Wound, Ostomy and Continence Nurse..mmm fun...). It was really fascinating. I only had to go out of a room once, and it was the room of the man with the massive sacral ulcer I mentioned in an earlier blog. I left due to an overwhelmingly noxious odor coming from his sacral wound area due to some GI issues that were occurring...I felt like vomiting. But other than that, the other patients were fascinating. The thing I saw the most of was venous skin ulcers due to venous insufficiency. They are shallow wounds that develops when the leg veins do not move blood back toward the heart well enough. The slowed circulation causes fluid to seep out of the overfilled veins into surrounding tissues, causing tissue breakdown and ulcers. They usually occur on the calves, which is where I saw them on a few patients.

In the afternoon I attended the wound care clinic in the Rehab facility. This is an outpatient clinic and people in the community can schedule appointments to get their wounds cleaned and re-dressed. It is not free however, but there is a free clinic nearby. There I saw 3 patients with venous ulcers, a young girl with a hand burn, and a lady who had stood up too fast at her massage therapist and sliced a huge chunk of calf off on the glass coffee table there. One of the most used wound dressing techniques is a Unna's Boot. It is a gauze covered with zinc oxide and calamine that is usually used for venous ulcer treatment. You wrap in around the lower leg a few times and then cover it with another wrap that creates more pressure on the leg and squeezes out fluid. I will admit that it was incredibly satisfying to watch wound dressings being put on because they were so good at it, making it line up perfectly! I could totally see myself doing this if I was a nurse except that I couldn't stand the funky odors. Yes, I'm a weirdo...