A patient has visited the clinic with an abscess that clearly needs to be incised and drained. An abscess is basically a skin infection that is common among people of all ages. Since these infections are common to all age groups, incision and drainage is usually carried out in a variety of settings including pediatric, adult-geriatric, and family practice settings. As a family nurse practitioner, the incision and drainage of an abscess is within my scope of practice. While incision and drainage is not widely taught in nurse practitioner programs, this clinical procedure is common in nursing practice settings. Current programs that offer training on this clinical procedure focus on providing a basic competency level using simulation-based learning (Adams et al., 2017). Therefore, the responsibility of the family nurse practitioner in abscess incision and drainage is to collaborate with other healthcare professionals to carry out the procedure.
In light of the scope of practice, the first step in abscess incision and drainage for this patient is collaborating with physicians to determine the most suitable technique to carry out the clinical procedure. Since the current educational program provides basic competency level for this procedure, the nurse practitioner should collaborate with physicians or healthcare professionals with advanced skills on incision and drainage of an abscess. When working with the physician or other healthcare professionals, the family nurse practitioner would conduct a physical examination and obtain a medical history to diagnose the abscess. The diagnosis of an abscess traditionally involves obtaining a medical history and carrying out physical examination (Subramaniam et al., 2016). The next step would involve the use of an appropriate technique to carry out the incision and drainage based on the diagnosis. The use of a suitable technique for incision and drainage is critical to prevent procedural sedation, anxiety, and associated discomfort that result in unplanned clinical revisits.
References
Adams, C.M., Nigrovic, L.E., Hayes, G., Weinstock, P.H. & Nagler, J. (2017, July). Teaching Incision and Drainage: Perceived Educational Value of Abscess Models. Pediatric Emergency Care, 34(3). DOI: 10.1097/PEC.0000000000001240
Subramaniam, S., Bober, J., Chao, J. & Zehtabchi, S. (2016, October 21). Point-of-care Ultrasound Diagnosis of Abscess in Skin and Soft Tissue Infections. Academic Emergency Medicine, 23(11), 1298-1306. Retrieved October 26, 2020, from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/acem.13049
