Distinguish between nonhealing and unstageable.
Question: How do I score the healing status of a Stage 2 pressure ulcer that is an intact serum-filled blister? Is it unstageable because you cannot see the base or is it nonhealing?
Answer: A Stage 2 ulcer that is still a fluid-filled blister would be scored as nonhealing, says Dorothy Doughty, director of the Wound Ostomy Continence Nursing Education Center at Emory University in Atlanta. So the stage is Stage 2; healing status is nonhealing.
Once the fluid has resolved and the dead skin has separated to reveal intact epidermis, you would classify the wound as healed, she adds.
