Editor's Note: What are the first steps to treating a skin tear? In this interview, Emily Greenstein, APRN, CNP, CWON-AP, FACCWS describes some best practices for skin tear management, such as marking a dressing for the direction of the skin flap.

Transcript

My name is Emily Greenstein and I'm a certified Wound and Ostomy Nurse Practitioner at Sanford Health in Fargo, North Dakota. I have been in wound care for about 11 years now. I've been at Sanford for 15 years. And I have been involved in many different wound care settings. I am currently the president for the North Central WOCN Society. And I do a lot of research. I write for a lot of publications, also.

When faced with a skin tear, what should be the first steps of treatment?

So when we talk about skin tears, kind of the first step or the first thing that we always look at is making sure you're assessing the skin tear where it's located, how much tissue loss there is. If it is a skin tear where the skin just kind of rolled back, that epidermis and dermis kind of rolled back, you can take a cotton swab, get it wet with saline and try to roll that out as much as you can, making sure that we're not suturing those that can't be sutured. Looking, making sure that if there is deeper involvement in the skin tear or it's more of a de-gloving type injury, that they are getting appropriate care, making sure that that's getting cleaned out so that the patients aren't getting hematomas underneath of that. Making sure that we're using something that's non-stick when we're putting it over there, making sure we're marking on the dressing which way that skin flap goes, so that when you're removing it, you're not removing any viable skin flap that might be left is a big thing also.

About the Speaker

Emily Greenstein, APRN, CNP, CWON-AP, FACCWS is a Certified Nurse Practitioner at Sanford Health in Fargo, ND. She received her BSN from Jamestown College and her MSN from Maryville University. She is certified as an Adult-Gerontology Nurse Practitioner through the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners. She has been certified in wound and ostomy care through the WOCNCB for the past 12 years. At Sanford she oversees the outpatient wound care and is co-director for the limb preservation program. She currently serves as the President elect for the North Central Region Wound, Ostomy, and Continence Society. Emily has served as an expert reviewer for the WOCN Society and the Journal for WOCN. Her main career focus is on the advancement of wound care through evidence-based research.