Educational Initiatives WOC Nurses Can Implement to Improve Direct Care Nurses Knowledge on Wounds

Problem: Direct care nurses lack confidence in assessing wounds.

Approach:  The WOC Department put together an initiative to help alleviate the misconception and fear of wounds for direct care nurses.  In the last year the WOC Department has conducted four one hour clinical practice lecture series offering CEU’s on topics that we thought nurses would benefit to improve their wound assessment skills and build their confidence.  The lecture topics consisted of incontinence associated dermatitis, pressure ulcer prevention, advanced wound healing, and wound measurement and documentation.  The WOC Department has taken the initiative to in-service respiratory therapists on device related skin assessments as well as providing in-service to all newly hired nurses.  The WOC Department’s largest effort has been to team with the advance practice nurses and educational resource staff to provide two hour lectures on pressure ulcer prevention.  This lecture is designed for nurses and patient care associates which allows for sharing and brainstorming on case scenarios that are provided during the lecture.  The communication between these two disciplines during the lecture allows for critical thinking and decision making about the care the patient received and also gives the opportunity for them to provide suggestions on ways patient care could have been improved for a more positive patient outcome.  This team interaction allows for improved delegation and communication between these two disciplines.

Outcome: Providing small educational series to direct care nurses has shown an improved compliance with admission assessment and documentation of wounds.  By providing this type of education it allows the direct care nurse to gradually incorporate skills learned into their practice at the bedside.

Conclusion:  Provide small well developed and thought out educational series through out the year to staff in order to increase compliance and understanding on types of wounds, assessment, and documentation.