Advanced Practice Nurse Managed Wound Clinic: A Collaborative Practice Model

Objectives:

1. Develop an Advanced Practice Nurse, managed wound clinic that coordinates comprehensive care needs of Spinal Cord individuals with pressure ulcers.
2. Improve communication with community home health care nursing agencies.
3. Facility obtaining wound cars supplies from patient’s medical home supplier.

Abstract: The purpose of this model is to improve the wound care of individuals with spinal cord injury who have developed pressure ulcers in the community setting. The Nurse Practitioners, who manage such patients in the out patient clinic at Craig Hospital, identified a need to provide coordinated care that minimize duplication and fragmentation of services and improved wound healing outcomes for our patients. All team members are consulted as needed by the Nurse Practitioners who coordinate each wound clinic visit, provide wound assessment and debridement as needed, write wound care orders for home health nurses and order as necessary wound care supplies. This innovative collaborative practice model has contributed to more cohesive and comprehensive wound management for individuals with spinal cord injury living in the community setting.