Personal Care Skills: Hygiene, Skin, and Dressing
The organizing idea
Personal care is about doing for the resident only what the resident cannot safely do alone. Bathing, oral care, denture care, grooming, shaving, dressing, perineal care, bed making, toileting, and pressure-injury prevention all follow the same principle: clean to dirty, and as much independence as possible.
Concepts to know cold
Complete, partial, tub, shower, and bed baths. Oral care including dentures and the unconscious resident. Perineal care for both sexes. Shaving with an electric razor unless facility policy and the resident's condition allow a safety razor. Dressing and undressing sequences based on weakness. Repositioning every two hours, skin inspection, and heel and pressure-point protection. Elastic stockings applied before the resident gets out of bed.
Traps
- Washing the perineal area before the face, or wiping back to front, which spreads bacteria toward the urethra.
- Placing dentures in hot water or on a bare counter; they warp and break. Line the basin or sink and store them in a labeled cup.
- Dressing the strong side first. Remember: when dressing, affected or weak side first; when undressing, strong side first.
- Failing to replace the foreskin after cleansing an uncircumcised male resident.
- Cutting the nails of a resident with diabetes or poor circulation.
- Skipping oral care because the resident is NPO. Comfort care still applies.
Rule of thumb
If it is wet, soiled, or has touched body fluids, you wear gloves - and you change them between dirty and clean tasks. Gloves are not a substitute for hand hygiene before and after care.