How to take a wound culture swab
Other platforms explain it with text and video. In VMS you practice it on the patient.
Swab the wound bed, not the pus on top, after cleaning.
Step by step
Clean the wound
Normal saline; remove loose debris. [1]
Choose the area
Healthy-looking tissue in the wound bed, not dead tissue or old pus. [1]
Swab
Press and rotate over about 1 square cm for a few seconds. [1]
Into the tube
Without touching anything else. [1]
Label
Site, date, time, at the bedside. [2]
Dress the wound
Clean dressing. [1]
Common errors
- Swabbing before cleaning.
- Swabbing the dressing or skin.
- Missing the site on the label.
Practice it in VMS
In VMS you do this on the patient, not on paper: every step goes on the checklist with a score, and in Teach mode Blocky tells you what comes next.
VMS cases that train this skill
Sources
- Open RN, Nursing Skills 2e (Chippewa Valley Technical College) (CC BY 4.0)
- The Joint Commission, National Patient Safety Goals
- OpenStax, Clinical Nursing Skills (CC BY 4.0)
Steps adapted from Open RN, Nursing Skills 2e (Chippewa Valley Technical College) and OpenStax, Clinical Nursing Skills, licensed under CC BY 4.0. VMS is not affiliated with these organizations. Updated: 2026-10-11.