Wound debridement can be challenging for community nurses, who need to be able to quickly identify a wound’s status in order to proceed with treatment. This article looks at some of the basic factors that nurses should consider when debriding and cleaning a wound, paying particular attention to assessment and ‘seeing’ the wound, and how clinicians can better remove potentially damaging material such as slough and necrosis. The article also investigates how clinicians caring for patients with leg ulceration can treat the ‘whole leg’. Finally, the authors consider the benefits of a new product, the UCS® debridement cloth (medi UK), and its ability to help community nurses gently debride and clean wounds of all types, as well as reducing the burden of using buckets of water to clean patients’ lower limbs. This has important implications for many community nurses, particularly concerning strain to the back during lower limb cleansing and the infection risk of transporting, cleaning and storing buckets in patients’ homes. There is also a time factor, as debridement cloths mean that visiting nurses can reduce the time associated with filling and emptying buckets in both clinic and home environments.
