Personal Hygiene and Pressure Ulcer Care

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards reviewing personal care procedures, bathing techniques, hygiene protocols, and pressure ulcer staging for Certified Nursing Assistants.

Person-Centered Care

An approach to healthcare that focuses on the resident's emotional needs and care preferences consistent with their lifestyle, encouraging independence, offering choices, and allowing the resident control over their daily routine.

Activities of Daily Living (ADLs)

Routine everyday personal care tasks performed by or for an individual, such as bathing, dressing, grooming, eating, and toileting.

Safety Razor Shaving Procedure

A procedure performed with gloves in a private area by applying shaving cream about $\frac{1}{8}\text{ inch}$ thick, shaving in the direction of hair growth, never recapping the razor, and disposing of it directly into a sharps container.

Hair Care

A daily morning and as-needed grooming routine that involves brushing from scalp to ends and shampooing at least once a week to remove dirt and dead cells, prevent matting, stimulate scalp circulation, and improve appearance.

Finger and Toenail Care

Soaking a resident's hands or feet in warm water for $10\text{--}15\text{ minutes}$ to soften nails before trimming to remove bacteria and prevent scratches, noting that nursing assistants must never cut the toenails of diabetic patients.

Weak Side Dressing Rule

The clinical guideline instructing caregivers to dress a resident's weak side first and undress the weak side last to protect joints and maintain resident comfort.

Complete Bed Bath

A bed bath procedure in which the resident's entire body is washed while they remain in bed, requiring water maintained at a temperature of $115^\circ\text{F}$.

Partial Bed Bath

A bath procedure that cleanses only select body areas: the face, hands, underarms, and genital or perineal area.

Tub Bath Guidelines

A bathing procedure where the water is kept at $105^\circ\text{F}$, the room at $75\text{--}80^\circ\text{F}$, the duration is limited to $10\text{--}15\text{ minutes}$, and the resident is never left unattended to prevent fainting from blood vessel dilation.

Shower Safety Protocol

Safety practices requiring the shower room to be $75\text{--}80^\circ\text{F}$, shower chair wheels locked when stationary, pushing the chair from the front rather than the back, and covering the resident with a bath blanket for warmth.

Occupied and Unoccupied Bed Making

Changing bed linens on bath days or when soiled, checking linens for personal belongings (dentures, hearing aids, glasses, jewelry), unfolding rather than shaking linens, and bagging soiled linens before exiting the room.

Backrub

A gentle massage administered with lotion over the back and bony prominences to promote circulation and comfort while inspecting the skin for redness, rashes, breakdown, and lesions.

Pressure Ulcer

A localized injury to the skin, underlying tissue, or both, which usually develops over a bony prominence as a result of sustained pressure or pressure combined with shear.

Bony Prominences

Areas of the body where bone lies close to the surface—such as the sacrum, heels, elbows, ischial tuberosities, and shoulder blades—placing them at high risk for pressure-induced tissue ischemia.

Non-blanchable Erythema

Skin redness that does not lose color or turn pale when pressed firmly with a finger and released, signifying compromised capillary blood flow characteristic of Stage 1 pressure ulcers.

Stage 1 Pressure Ulcer

A localized area of intact skin with non-blanchable redness that is not an open wound, which may feel warmer, firmer, or painful, and may display discoloration on darker skin tones.

Stage 2 Pressure Ulcer

A painful, tender open wound extending into deeper skin layers that presents as an abrasion, a shallow crater, or an intact or ruptured clear fluid-filled blister.

Stage 3 Pressure Ulcer

A pressure injury extending completely through the skin into subcutaneous tissue to form a crater where fat may be visible, but bone, tendon, and muscle remain unexposed.

Stage 4 Pressure Ulcer

A severe, full-thickness tissue loss extending deeply into muscle, tendon, joint, and bone, creating extensive destruction and high risk for systemic complications like osteomyelitis.

Osteomyelitis

A severe bacterial infection of the bone that can develop as a complication of an advanced Stage 4 pressure ulcer.

Deep Tissue Injury

A suspected pressure-related injury where subcutaneous tissues beneath intact skin suffer damage without forming an open wound.

Unstageable Pressure Injury

A full-thickness pressure ulcer whose base is obscured by necrotic tissue or pus (yellow, grey, green, brown, or black), preventing visual assessment of true wound depth.

Pressure Ulcer Prevention Protocol

Evidence-based preventative measures—given that $95\%$ of pressure ulcers are preventable—including repositioning immobile residents at least every $2\text{ hours}$, padding pressure points, providing adequate nutrition/hydration, and inspecting skin during every care task.

Oral Care

Assisting residents with brushing teeth at least twice daily and flossing once daily to stimulate gums, remove food particles, facilitate eating, and reduce the risk of systemic complications linked to periodontal disease.

Oral Care for Comatose or NPO Residents

Mouth cleansing performed every $2\text{ hours}$ by swabbing the oral cavity while the resident's head is turned to one side to prevent aspiration.

Denture Care

Cleaning dentures at least twice daily using warm water over a washcloth-lined sink and wearing gloves to protect expensive dental appliances against slippage and fracture.

Elimination

The physiological process of removing metabolic and digestive waste products from the body in the form of urine and feces.

Incontinence

The involuntary loss or inability to control urination or defecation.

Perineal Care

The cleansing of a resident's genital and anal regions performed at least daily, with baths, and promptly after every incontinent episode to prevent odor and urinary tract infections.

Fracture Pan

A low-profile, flatter bedpan designed specifically for residents who cannot easily raise their hips or use a standard curved bedpan.

Bedside Commode (BSC)

A portable frame with a toilet seat and removable collection bucket placed near the bed for residents who can transfer out of bed but cannot walk to the bathroom, requiring sanitization after every single use.