The Toolbox of The Future: Pressure Injury Prevention and The Bedside Nurse

Background and Objectives

Clinical Nurses at the bedside are skilled and focused on the needs of their patients. They work hard to keep the most vulnerable and critical patients stable. The challenge in a 1,011 bed, Magnet and Level 1 Trauma Center is keeping pressure injury prevention a priority.  It became apparent that Clinical Nurses at the bedside needed easily accessible pressure injury prevention tools and resources. This goal was accomplished through education, a pressure injury prevention bundle, and an online resource portal page.

Outcomes

A three hour CE course was developed to empower bedside nurses. The course curriculum includes wound types, appropriate dressing selection, pressure injury prevention, and basic ostomy care. The course is open to both nurses and patient care technicians. One hundred forty-one staff members completed the course. A pressure injury prevention bundle was developed through the electronic medical record (EMR) system to allow bedside nurses to initiate pressure injury prevention measures quickly. The bundle includes but is not limited to orders for positioning/offloading supports and specialty beds. Bedside nurses are empowered to submit a nurse initiated consult to the wound/ostomy and nutrition teams through the system/EMR. A web portal page developed by the wound/ostomy team houses written education and resources for quick usage and reference. Bedside nurses can access product formulary item numbers, algorithms, policies, and educational handouts from the portal page. The phone numbers of the nine wound care clinicians are posted for assistance and/or should questions arise.

Results

The pressure injury prevention resource page and tools have increased the quality of care provided to at-risk individuals on admission, as well as increasing staff and patient satisfaction. Bedside nurses collaborate with the wound/ostomy care team. They also participate in the house-wide quarterly prevalence as this helps to sustain and retain pressure injury prevention skills.