Pressure Ulcer Case Study

407 Theme & Brief Rationale

Pressure ulcers development occurs in every hospital and it remains a major worldwide health problem for many years. However, pressure ulcers have received minimal attention when we talk about it as a patient safety issue. It is a patient safety issue as it can lead to serious damage such as life-threatening infections and pain (Richardson & Barrow, 2015). On a med/surg unit, individuals may experience long or short hospital stays depending on the situation. For the short stays, the focus of care is often on regaining activities of daily living (Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario, 2011). Therefore, assessment and education regarding pressure ulcers is often minimal or non-existent (RNAO, 2011). Every client who is at risk needs to be assessed and educated regarding pressure ulcers and the subsequent skin breakdown (Cooper, 2013). During the hospital stay, clients may have limited movement and pressure ulcers can extend into the muscle, tendon, and bone (RNAO, 2011). In many cases, clients do not notice the formation of an ulcer and as it may be in areas that are out of sight such as the coccyx. Often,

Rationale

The Braden Scale is recommended as per RNAO’s Best Practice Guideline (RNAO, 2011). It is a reliable risk assessment tool to use when identifying clients who are at risk for developing a pressure ulcer (RNAO, 2011). Inspection of the skin using a head-to-toe assessment approach also ensures that clients at risk for skin breakdown is thoroughly assessed and particular attention is paid to vulnerable areas such as bony prominences (RNAO, 2011).

Activities

Activity 1

I will review RNAO’s Best Practice Guideline: “Risk Assessment and Prevention of Pressure Ulcers” – by September 26 (RNAO,