DIY wound packing trainer under $10 dollars!

 

I made my own wound packing trainer. I wanted the learning experience to be as realistic as possible, but the price of trainers are too expensive!  So I made my own using items that could be found in the dollar store or a craft store. Overall, I think I spent less than $10 dollars making it.  

 

Materials needed:

1.       Pool noodle ($1 from the dollar store)

2.       Playdough ($1 pack of 4 from the dollar store)

3.       Empty paper or plastic container (I used the empty container from peeps candy)  

4.       Something to cut with (I used a pumpkin craver)

5.       Acrylic paint (Red, white, and Peach) ($ 4 from Michaels)

6.       Clear top coat nail polish ($ 1 from the dollar store)

7.       Paintbrushes ( $ 1 from the dollar store)

8.     Permanent Marker/sharpie 

 

 

Step 1: Measure and cut the pool noodle to the length of the empty container. Place in a container to make sure it fits properly.

Step 2: Draw “wound” shape on cut out pool noodle

 

Step 3: Cut out the shape. Make sure to not cut through both sides of the pool noodle. The other side of the pool noodle should be left intact.

Step 4: warm-up the playdough, by rolling in it your hands till its moldable

Step 5: roll a piece of playdough into a ball and then flatten it.

Step 6:  cover pool noodle with playdough, starting with the wound hole. Make sure to cover the bottom of the hole with playdough as well.

 

VIDEOS:

Step 7: After pool noodle is covered with playdough, leave for 2 days for the playdough to dry out.

(If the playdough cracks in some parts after it is dried out, it's ok.  You can turn those into skin tear sites

Later)

 

Step 8: coat the dried out playdough with clear topcoat nail polish ( I did several coats ). Let it dry.  The nail polish sets the playdough and hardens it.

Step 9:  Repeat Step 8 three more times. Make sure the nail polish is dry before moving on to the next step.

Step 10:  Mix some of the peach and white acrylic paint, till you get skin color.

Step 11: Paint the Playdough using the skin color paint mix. ( I applied 2 coats ) let it dry

Step 12: repeat step 11 two more times.

Step 13:  Using the red acrylic paint, paint the wound hole and cracks in the playdough red. Make sure to pain the inside of the wound hole.  Let dry completely

Step 14:  Using the skin color paint over cracks and wound hole, to get a clean finish. let dry

Step 15: Practice wound Care!