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Background: Hospital acquired pressure ulcers (HAPU) are a concern as it is an indicator of the quality of nursing care provided. In 2008, a Pressure Ulcer Process Improvement (PUPI) team was initiated. The PUPI has collaborated with the hospital wide Skin Team and WOC nurses to initiate numerous process changes yet no significant reduction in HAPU had been made. In April 2011, the WOC nurses provided education to the adult services nursing staff for yearly revalidations in which the bulk of the information provided was related to pressure ulcer prevention.
Purpose: To reduce the amount of HAPU Stage II or greater and meet the hospital’s yearly goal of 53 or less or 0.32/ 100 patients through individual nursing education.
Description: A PowerPoint module was presented to nursing which provided clear information about pressure ulcer staging, prevention and treatment along with hospital policy. In addition, it clearly defined what the expectations were for nursing assessment, interventions, and documentation. Next, a case study was given and everyone was to complete the Braden Score and list interventions that would be discussed by the group. Nursing had hands on practice of assessing and measuring pressure ulcers using mannequins and documenting their assessments. A final quiz was given to validate what was learned.
Results: After revalidations, a noted decline in quarterly totals from the 1st quarter beginning with 20 HAPU’s. The second quarter had a total of 15 HAPU’s and the third quarter with a total of 7 HAPU’s. We expect to achieve our goal of 53 or less HAPU’s for the year.