A medical assistant is preparing to apply a compression bandage

Contrary to your belief of this blog being a how-to guide to build the perfect turkey wrap for lunch or how to drop a beat, it is actually a how-to-guide on all the different types of bandaging techniques. We shadowed our SBBCollege Santa Maria Medical Assistants and watched how they learned the different types of wrapping forms.

Medical assistant students were informed by the instructor on all the following roller bandage wraps listed below. They used roller bandages, which are long strips of material made of either elastic, cotton, or linen.  These bandages are applied to provide support to a strain or sprain. It is used to dress the hurt ligament and applied firmly without cutting off circulation. Every wrap starts off with the roll of bandage being placed on the softer material side on the injured area.

1. Circular Bandaging: Considered one of the more basic and easier types of bandaging for medical assistant students, this dressing is most commonly used on arms, legs, chest, or abdomen. While holding the roll in place, you unroll the bandage toward you while keeping the spacing equal as you cover higher parts of the injured limb. You continue to wrap around the injured area and use tape or a clip to hold the bandage together.

2. Figure-of-Eight Bandaging: This bandaging technique involves the strips of bandage crossing each other to form the figure eight. The wraps will cross over at an “X” point and it is usually where the limb flexes. While wrapping the wrist, you loop around the wrist a couple times, then across the front of the hand between the inside of the thumb and pointer finger, then back around the front of your hand, around your wrist and repeat.

3. Spiral Bandaging: This form of bandaging that our medical assistants learn is named spiral because of a V-shaped fold that forms when wrapping. You start with wrapping the affected area a couple of times, then you scale the bandage up about an inch, twist around and come back down. (Up an inch, then you twist down.) The distance of the wrap should be consistent, while wrapping the injured limb. Once complete, you will notice that the wrap has the V-shape.

4. Reverse Spiral Bandage: Slightly more challenging than the Spiral Bandage wrap, this technique requires the bandage to be folded back on itself (Our students got extra credit for learning and perfecting the reverse spiral bandage!). While wrapping the limb, twist the bandage over itself. When twisting the bandage make sure that you’re still mindful of the bandage distance as you are scaling up on the limb. This is one of the more complex bandaging techniques our medical assistant students learn.

It is important for a medical assistant to learn all the following wrap techniques because each of them serve a different purpose. These wrap techniques are to create pressure points on the affected area, whether it’s swelling, bleeding, or a sprain, these techniques are applied to provide support and comfort for the injured body part.

READY TO TAKE THE NEXT STEP?

The SBBCollege Medical Assisting Program provides the skills and knowledge for students to become medical assistants. Our program includes hands-on training to enable students to master the skills of administrating injections, sterilizing instruments, venipuncture procedure, and much more. Students can complete the program in about 9 months, including on-the-job training!

Have questions about our nursing program or the nursing field in general? We’re happy to answer all of them. Call us today at 866-749-7222!

When a medical assistant is documenting data in a patient's progress note which of the following abbreviations is acceptable for use?

Which of the following pieces of legislation keeps health care staff safe from retaliation?

Which of the following terms as a procedure that involves an incision into the eardrum?

Which of the following duties is the medical assistant allowed to perform independently?