How to Perform a Wound Culture

A wound culture is performed by a health care professional from wounds that exhibit signs or symptoms of infection such as abnormal drainage, redness, poor healing and increased pain. The culture specimen is sent to a laboratory for processing to verify what kind of organism is causing the infection as well as to determine what treatment will be most effective. You may notice slight variations in how health care professionals obtain a wound culture due to the protocol of their health care institution and the type of culture collection kit used.

Things You'll Need

• Soap
• Water
• Three pairs of gloves
• Sterile saline irrigation solution
• Culture collection kit
• Biohazard bag
• Wound dressing

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Instructions

• 1

  Obtain a physician's order to collect a wound culture.

• 2

  Wash hands with soap and water, then dry well. Put on the first pair of gloves.

• 3

  Remove the wound dressing if one is present. Remove the gloves, then wash your hands with soap and water. After drying your hands, put on new gloves.

• 4

  Irrigate the wound thoroughly with sterile saline solution or a solution ordered by the physician.

• 5

  Remove and dispose of the second pair of gloves. Wash your hands with soap and water again, then dry well. Put on the clean third pair of gloves.

• 6

  Press the sterile calcium alginate or rayon swab, which is found in culture collection kit, to the wound with enough pressure to press out fluid from the wound tissue. While gently twirling the swab between your fingers, move the swab from one edge of the wound to the other edge using a 10-point zigzag method.

• 7

  Place the swab in the culture medium from the culture collection kit and, after properly packaging, send the specimen to the laboratory in a biohazard transport bag.

• 8

  Redress the wound as ordered by the physician.

• 9

  Remove and dispose of the gloves. Wash hands with soap and water, then dry well.

• 10

  Document the procedure, the wound appearance and the patient's response.