A Performance Improvement Project to Increase Nursing Compliance with Skin Assessments in a Rehabilitation Unit

Abstract

Skin rounds and staff education not only increased nursing accountability and improved documentation of wounds but also helped promote the healing of patient's current skin issues.

PROTECT – Trial: A cluster RCT to study the effectiveness of a repositioning aid and tailored repositioning to increase repositioning compliance

“…Older adults and critical care patients have an increased risk of developing PUs because numerous risk factors are present (Cooper, 2013;Rasero et al, 2015;Richardson, Peart, Wright, & McCullagh, 2017). Rehabilitation patients are at risk for PU development given their often medically compromised and debilitated status and age (Revello & Fields, 2012).…”

A Two‐Arm Cluster Randomized Control Trial to Determine the Effectiveness of a Pressure Ulcer Prevention Bundle for Critically Ill Patients

“…Some individual PU prevention strategies have a positive impact in the reduction of PU development. Successful individual strategies include: a comprehensive examination and assessment of the patient's skin (Revello & Fields, ); assessment of risk using a validated risk assessment scale and implementation of intervention strategies based on risk (Guy, ); implementation of strategies such as pressure‐relieving devices (Manzano et al., ); regular repositioning as per patient need (Vanderwee, Grypdonck, De Bacquer, & Defloor, ); assessment of and regular repositioning and resecurement of medical devices (Coyer, Stotts, & Blackman, ); and particular strategies to address high‐risk sites for PU development (i.e., sacrum and heels; Reilly, Karakousis, Schrag, & Stawicki, ). These strategies can be grouped together in a bundle to reduce the incidence of PU development for critically ill patients in the ICU.…”

Risk Factors for Development of New or Worsened Pressure Ulcers Among Patients in Inpatient Rehabilitation Facilities in the United States: Data From the Uniform Data System for Medical Rehabilitation

“…Adequate staffing ratios have been shown to reduce the risk of pressure ulcer development in long-term care facilities [44], but again that information was not available to us. Although our data were limited, the C-statistics of the models do indicate that the final models provide important information on those patients most at risk for developing a new or worsened pressure ulcer, even without this additional information, as rehabilitation patients have the potential for skin breakdown because of the nature of their clinical and medical conditions and are often debilitated [45].…”