Skin Breakdown Summary

Ackerman, C. L. (2011). ‘Not On My Watch:’ Treating and Preventing Pressure Ulcers. MEDSURG Nursing, 20(2), 86-93 8p.

With the implementation of the Medicare Guidelines of pay for Performance Initiative, skin breakdown was identified as a very preventable problem. According to a study that was done at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, nurses said that skin care is sometimes too time consuming, which can take away time that they have to care for other patients. So, a project that consists of an 8 step process was implemented to help nurses prevent and treat skin care problems at the medical center. The program had set 3 goals. The first goal was to utilize an expert skin care resource nurse to treat patients with skin

The first step of the eight step process is development of The Treatment Protocol, which addresses the most common areas of the body prone to skin breakdown and provides guidelines for treatment. The second step is The Treatment Record, which contains skin interventions from the nurse’s document. The third step is A Physician Sticker, which is a sticker that notifies the physician of skin breakdown. The sticker also describes the skin breakdown stages. The fourth step is The Radar Screen, which is a nurse worksheet that is double sided and makes the nurses aware of patients at high risk for skin breakdown. The fifth step is notifying the dietary department if a patient has stage III, stage IV, or unstageable pressure ulcers. The sixth step is alerting the designated Skin Care Nurse to inspect and assess every patient in the hospital with advanced skin breakdown. The seventh step is providing appropriate bed surfaces for patients and using other therapies in conjunction with the beds. The eighth and final step of the process is to place the care plan on the patient’s Kardex, which is a permanent part of the patient’s medical