How to Treat a Cut With First Aid

Video Transcript

"You tripped, you fell, you got a cut, and now you need to figure out how to treat it. My name is Beverly Bitterman, A. R. N. P., Health and Wellness consultant and I'm here to give you some basic steps for how to do that. The first thing that you want to make sure that you do, if you have a cut, is to make sure it's clean and dry and that the bleeding gets stopped. So, I would do, say, let's pretend the cut is on your arm, I would take the arm, the person, over to the sink and run some warm water on it. Just let the water flow over the cut to make sure it's clean and the area around it is clean. If it's a child, maybe outside playing or you were in the garden and you got cut in a dirty place, then you'll want to use a little soap on that cut as well, and if the cut was dirty, you'll need to consider how up to date your tetanus injections are because if you haven't had one in several years, then you're going to want to check with your doctor about that. But, if you just have a plain, regular cut, then you've got the bleeding stopped, and you do that by applying pressure to the cut and you use just a clean cloth. It doesn't have to be sterile, or and it could be a four by four, could be a kitchen paper towel or a washcloth and you hold that on there, and it might take a minute or so for the bleeding to stop. Once the bleeding stopped, then go ahead and take a band-aid and you'll want to make sure that the band-aid is the right size for the cut and just open that up and put it on. You don't actually have to put anything on a basic cut. Your body does a great job of healing itself. You might want to put on an anti-biotic ointment. It's okay to do that, but if it's a small cut, if it's a clean cut, it probably isn't actually required. I would more think about an anti-biotic ointment if the cut was a little bit of, dirtier and if, maybe there gets some redness around it. You want to change your bandage every day just partly to make sure you look at the cut, and you also want to change the bandage if it gets wet. The two most important things are keeping it clean and dry. I hope that helps you, and my name is Beverly Bitterman, A. R. N. P. , Nurse consultant, and I hope the cut heals up right away."