Do physical therapist assistants do A LOT of wound drainage or come in contact with infectious material a lot? How many times a week/day/month do they deal with infectious material? Or is it uncommon for physical therapist assistants to come into contact with infectious material?
Tags: Assistants, Come, Contact, Drainage, Infectious, Material, Physical, Therapist, With, Wound
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#1 by mistify on January 9, 2010 - 10:18 pm
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First, it depends on your state laws. While PTs are able to do wound care, some states do not allow this of a PTA…especially for any debridement.
Overall, I would say PTs are doing wound care less and less. The history of PTs doing wound care stems back to when they worked with patients who had amputations after coming home from war. Wounds were something that frequently affected this population. With the advancements in prosthesis, PTs may still see people for wound care, but its usually someone with venous stasis ulcers. However, some of the things we used to do for wound care (such as whirlpool) are completely ineffective. With the advancements in enzymatic debridements and specialized dressings, nurses are assuming this role much more (which I agree with).
PTs still have a small foothold in woundcare, but it is quicly fading. Ever since we had a wound care center open at our facility, I never see wounds anymore.
However, PTs and PTAs working in hospitals and inpatient settings still frequently encounter infectious material…blood, feces, vomit, etc. Exposure is usually daily….but it’s often times unintentional (ie, the patient has a leaky diaper or their wound in draining, etc)
We still encounter it in the outpatient setting too…but to a much lesser extent.
#2 by TweetyBi on January 10, 2010 - 5:16 am
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Depends on the requirements of the position and the clientele you work with. If you’re certified in wound care and your facility provides wound care, you’d be expected to provide it if that’s a service of your facility.
All staff, no matter what the position they hold, are expected to be knowledgeable about standard and contact precautions as well as the specific policies of the facility regarding infection control. If contact precautions are observed, there will be no contact with “infectious material”.
#3 by Mary on January 10, 2010 - 8:06 am
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It depends on where they work. They probably will only do wound care if they work in the hospital or maybe a nursing home. I work in the school system, the other PTs and the PTA never do wound care.
But we come in contact with germs all the time. Patients sneeze, cough etc.
We are trained in universal precautions. So I would not worry about the infectious material. If it is the wound care you are concerned about you probably will not have to do it except during training.
#4 by Carole on January 10, 2010 - 1:55 pm
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No, if you are a PTA you will not be required to. A wound care specialist usually tends to infectious disease and wounds.
#5 by imarocks on January 10, 2010 - 8:51 pm
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No, this is uncommon.