WOC Nurses Quality Initiative to Improve Documentation of Pressure Injury Prevention Standards

WOC Nurses Quality Initiative to Improve Documentation of Pressure Injury Prevention Standards

 

Introduction:

Documentation of repositioning and initiation of plan of care is reported quarterly to the National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators as part of the pressure injury audit. Our standards, based on the recommendations from the National Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel and Wound, Ostomy, and Continence Nurses Society is to reposition at risk patients every two hours and initiate a plan of care within 24 hours of admission or when there is a significant change in condition. Based on data from weekly chart audits we found that documentation of repositioning at risk patients and presence of care plan initiation did not meet our standard of care.

Topic:

The problem of ensuring comprehensive documentation related to pressure injury prevention is well-documented, pervasive and not unique to our institution. To date, there are no fail safe solutions. As a result, wound, ostomy, continence nurses must meet the challenge of testing creative solutions to overcome this problem.

Purpose:

To improve the quality and accuracy of the pressure injury prevention documentation through introduction of a multifaceted educational program.

Outcomes:

After 18 weeks of a multifaceted educational approach, we saw incremental improvements in the documentation of pressure injury prevention in 4 out of 5 acute care nursing units.