Editing Nursing Skills and Procedures – LPN Practice Questions (section)

==Question 3==
A licensed practical nurse is performing a dressing change on a clean, healing abdominal incision. Which cleansing technique is correct?
# Clean in a circular motion beginning at the outer edge and moving toward the incision.
# Clean along the incision line first, then outward, using a new gauze for each stroke.
# Scrub back and forth across the incision with a single saturated gauze.
# Clean from the drain site toward the incision using one gauze pad.

'''Answer:''' 2 (B). Clean along the incision line first, then outward, using a new gauze for each stroke.

''Rationale:'' Cleansing always moves from the least contaminated area to the most contaminated area, which means from the incision outward, and a new gauze is used for every stroke so organisms are not carried back. Options 1 and 4 move contaminated material toward the incision. Option 3 both moves back and forth over the wound and reuses a soiled gauze. A drain site is considered more contaminated than an incision, so an incision is cleaned before a drain when both are present.