Wound Care Essentials for the Hand Therapist (Recorded Webinar)

Video Runtime: 62 Minutes; Learning Assessment Time: 18 Minutes

Hand therapists often encounter patients with traumatic or surgical wounds. Most of these wound types heal on their own without significant intervention from the hand therapist. This course will address healing principles and applicable wound-care strategies for the hand therapist not as familiar with wounds for those soft-tissue injuries that don’t easily heal on their own and need intervention from the hand therapist to facilitate closure and healing.

Learning Objectives

Apply wound-healing principles to maximize wound closure in the hand and upper extremity patient population to promote return to self-care
Implement a wound-cleansing plan for hand and upper extremity wound patients in your work setting
Determine an appropriate wound-care strategy that includes debridement in your therapy clinic
Examine wound-care topicals and supplies for the needs of your clinic to treat hand wounds to maximize functional use during ADLs

Meet your instructor

A smiling woman with long blond hair in a black top stands against a white background for medbridge.

Nora Barrett

Nora Barrett graduated from the Program in Occupational Therapy at Washington University in St. Louis in 1997. She has been a practicing occupational therapist since 1998 and a certified hand therapist since 2006. She spent her early career as an inpatient therapist at rehabilitation centers, acute care hospitals and burn…

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Chapters & learning objectives

1. Introduction

This chapter will cover wound-healing principles to guide the therapist’s decision-making and patient treatment to promote wound closure. Hygiene with both soap and water as well as cleansers will be reviewed. Top five tips for wound care in the hand clinic are included.

2. Case #1: How Do I Care for This Wound?

This chapter will cover a patient case that demonstrates the importance of wound debridement between dressing changes and how that simple step creates a trajectory for healing. Several debridement types will be highlighted in depth as they relate to this case.

3. Case #2: What Should I Put on This Wound?

This chapter will showcase several dressing options in a case as the wound evolves from open and draining to closing and dry. Various topicals and supplies will be shown in the context of this wound case.

4. Qustion and Answer Session

In this chapter, we'll review and answer the questions asked during the webinar.

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