Yes, and it’s an ordinary thing to do. Many patients or family members are actively involved in wound care, but you need to discuss and plan the wound care and dressing changes with your healthcare professional.
So the answer comes with a condition, and the condition is planning rather than permission. The schedule and the dressing are chosen together by the person treating the wound, and whoever is doing the changing needs to know what was chosen and why.
One instruction applies specifically when someone else is doing it. Put on clean medical gloves if the wound is infected, or if you are changing the dressing for someone else. Those gloves don’t need to be sterile. Changing your own dressing and changing someone else’s are not held to the same standard, because the risk of carrying bacteria between people is different.
Hand hygiene matters a lot. If you or your caregiver is changing your wound dressing, good hand hygiene — including alcohol-based hand rubs and handwashing with soap and water — is critical to reduce the risk of spreading bacteria.
The practical steps are the same for anyone changing a dressing: clean hands first, washing with soap and warm water and cleaning under the nails, then rinsing and drying with a clean towel; supplies ready and a clean work surface; the old dressing into a plastic bag; hands washed again afterward; and no touching the inside of the new dressing.
One thing a family member should not take on: if there are stitches or staples that don’t dissolve, the surgeon removes them. Don’t pull at them or try to remove them.
If nobody has shown the person doing this how to do it for your particular wound, that is the thing to arrange. Being willing is not the same as being taught.