How to Clean a Wound During First Aid

Video Transcript

"You know, at one point and time, we're all either going to receive a minor injury or help someone who has received a minor injury. Hi, I'm Captain Joe Bruni. What we are going to talk about is how to clean a wound prior to bandaging during first aid procedures. The first thing that we want to recognize is that the area is safe, or the scene is safe around the victim or the patient. Once we determine that the scene is safe, if available we want to wear some type of latex medical glove that is designed for this purpose of working with wounds. Once the gloves are in place, you would assess the wound area that needs to be cleaned. Depending on the amount of debris and dirt that may be in a wound, you could take a look at the wound. If there is all ready a bandage in place. If there is large pieces of debris or dirt still there, they can be removed with something as simple as tweezers or forceps. And picking away the dirt or the material. If dirt or other material has gotten under the layers of the skin or into the wound, it may have to be disinfected and cleaned with something like a soft nail brush. This may be painful for the victim, however its important to get the wound area as clean as possible to avoid secondary infection from occurring. We could then take some type of sterile water or disinfected water, hydrogen peroxide or any other antiseptic available to clean the wound area. If forceful type of cleaning is necessary with the solution, it could be placed in something like a syringe or even a bulb syringe and plunged onto the area in the form of a stream. Washing out the dirt and debris. And then we would move on to bandaging the wound area. This is very important to to clean the area as much as possible, to eliminate routes of secondary infection, germs and bacteria. I'm Captain Joe Bruni, stay stafe and we'll see you next time."