Improving Pediatric Skin Care by the Development of a Wound and Skin Care Team

Improving Neonatal Skin Care by the Development of a Wound & Skin Care Team.  

Skin and wound care is integral to the care we provide to the patients in our Children's Hospital. The bedside nurse enounters many challenges  such as pressure ulcers,  ostomies, surgical wounds, epidermal stripping and IV infiltrates. We identified that our pressure ulcer rate and lack of resources were problematic.  A wound and skin care team was formed to provide education and resources to a core group of staff who became  a resource for their colleagues. The group is facillitated by 2 unit based clinical nurse specialists, one of which is a CWON. 

We had an intiial skin care education workshop which covered  general wound and skin care topics and pressure ulcer prevention. We meet monthly to continue education, discuss our pressure ulcer prevelence and discuss cases from their practice. The group has developed evidence based wound care guidelines and pressure ulcer guidelines for use in the facility.  

The team members are  becoming experts and are  frequently consulted by the staff. Activities include: staff education and daily patient rounds to assist the staff. The pre implemetation assessment yeileded a score of 3 our of ten in the area of 'knowing who your resources are'. After the team implementation the scores have increased to 7/ 10. In addtion the pressure ulcer rate and rate of problematic IV infiltrates decreased to zero within 3 months of the team formation.

Our successes demonstrate that these efforts make a difference and provide a blueprint for others.