2005 Symposium on Advanced Wound Care | |
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Informational/Educational Report
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Meeting the challenge of providing evidenced based wound care; the York central hospital experience. Joy Baetz, RN, ET, Enterostomal Therapy Nurse Clinician, York Central Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Fran Kleinsteuber, RN, BScN, ET, Skin Health Clinical Consultant, 3M Canada Company, Toronto, Ontario, Canada Implementing evidence-based /best practice in wound care can be a major challenge for a facility. The need for a facility wide, consistent approach to wound and skin care was identified in order to address issues related to multiple levels of care, varying levels of knowledge and limited resources within the hospital. To begin the process a Committee was formed, a partnership with industry was established, and the development of a customized education program was undertaken to improve the level of knowledge and practice through out all areas of the facility. This poster will describe this journey. A comprehensive benchmarking process was conducted to gather information about the current level of practice within the facility. The planning process involved the development of facility guidelines, standards, polices and procedures and customized education programs to meet the identified needs of all levels of staff involved in wound care. A unit specific “wound coach” was selected through a nomination process and provided with a variety of learning experiences to increase their knowledge. This “wound coach” nurse functions as a resource for the staff nurse, providing education and assistance in wound care. Plans also included measures to sustain the changes and further develop the knowledge base within the facility Evaluation of outcomes will include auditing procedures to measure the success of the integration of the principles into practice. The process has strongly demonstrated the need for a team-based approach when implementing a program through out the facility. The Wound Management strategy, the education delivery methods, and awareness of facility investment in staff has created an interest and excitement in the staff prompting requests for more education and skill development in wound and skin management. |
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