Neosporin is making a fortune with ad campaigns because people put the stuff on every little cut they get!! Come on; it's an antibiotic ointment and can make skin alot worse if it is not infected!!! You only use it for an INFECTION!! Please stop telling folks to use it on every little nick that they get; or scars. PLEASE! It can kill healthy skin cells if there is no infection. So can peroxide & alcohol - these are only used for 'dirty' wounds. Soap and water; and a dry bandage changed daily is the proper protocol for 90% of all minor cuts and wounds. Please stop giving Neosporin/tripple-antiobiotic ointments money by recommending it for everything! Thank you.
Retired Infection Control Nurse
2006-06-15 01:59:12 · 5 answers · asked by Sassy OLD Broad 7 in Health ➔ Diseases & Conditions ➔ Skin Conditions
Wound doc: If you noticed, we are not talking "absolutes" here; just general, good health measures to treat minor skin conditions/wounds. And the nurses who are so "uneducated" take their orders from DOCTORS, remember? We are simply addressing people who recommend topical antiobiotics for every skin condition when good old soap and water will do the trick. I hate that this simple technique is being overlooked in favor of advertisement for ointment! And I don't think we can culture a wound online.
By the way, any wound care nurse has to be certified in a protocol before using it, simple as we may be. And we are often approached by a physician to write an order for him to sign for wound care because he hasn't had the time or inclination to know anything about it.
I'd like to hear what other simple-minded nurses think of WOUND DOC'S unkind comments about nurses.
Do you remember that old saying: "those who 'can't', TEACH?" Shame on you, W.D.
2006-06-15 06:18:28 · update #1
Yes....and peroxide is not good either it can slow the healing process!! My kids Dr said hot soapy water is all that is need for most cuts!! And air.....not all cuts need a band aid on it!! They keep cuts moist and keep the them from scabbing over. He said if need be a band aid the first day after that keep it clean & let it air.
2006-06-15 02:06:11 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 2⤋
Wound care philosophy has changed we are taught that antibiotic topicals also diminish rate of growth of living healthy skin tissue. We are taught that a moist environment helps normal cells grow as living cells die if they are dry. We are not taught in the simplistic absolutes the nurse stated. An ointment does maintain an underlying moist environment and a cream which is water soluable dries out and doesn't. Hydrogels also are used to maintain a moist environment. Occasionally especially in healthy people an ointment with an antibiotic decreases the bacterial burden of a wound as do silver and other products such as bactroban which is known to be less cytotoxic.
I taught nurses and the IQ level was far below that of doctors. Anatomy physiology in nursing school were definitional courses so they could speak intelligently and barely knew the definitions but not the basic concepts. You cannot understand biochemistry unless you got a good grade in Organic chemistry nurses could not take organic chemistry becaues they did not take a real for science majors inorganic chemistry course. Physiology requires knowledge of Physics and Calculus how many nurses took AP Calculus in High School? Most doctorsd did. Many nurses did not even do well in High school science and Math courses. This of course is not always the case for nurses but in my experience has been for the past 25 years. So they think in absolutes. neosporin bad dry dressing good. Which for many reasons may be appropriate and many inappropriate.
2006-06-15 03:03:42 · answer #2 · answered by wound doc 1 · 0⤊ 3⤋
I agree and it will make burns get infected. My husband burned his leg on the pipe of his harley and we used neosporin and it made it get infected. Now it has scarred really bad.
2006-06-15 02:04:37 · answer #3 · answered by Mommyme 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Is Neosporin Bad For You
2017-02-25 08:50:35 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes. Not all at once though. Logic dictates that if a government in power declares one of group people unworthy of life, and makes their living illegal, everything else that you can do alive (everything) becomes illegal.
2016-03-15 05:16:51 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
We work for an oil rig building company...so we do use things like that for everything....but true, true...if it's not dirty it's pointless.
2006-06-15 02:04:01 · answer #6 · answered by jenn 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋