Implementing Evidence-Based Practice
The problem of pressure ulcers, or bedsores, should be significant for healthcare settings, and this should be particularly severe in the case of long-term care facilities for older adults. These ulcers are bound by the long-term compressive force, vertical friction, and shear stresses that evoke tissue damage (Zaidi & Sharma, 2022). Regardless of the increased detection and treatment of this disease, it continues to be one of the major problems that patients have to suffer. It makes them feel pain, and it also increases the rates of infection with prolonged hospital stays and incurs a financial burden. Undertaking evidence-based interventions has become a prerequisite for preventing pressure ulcers, especially in this cohort that may be dangerously exposed to them (Crunden et al., 2022). NURS FPX 6011 Assessment 3: Implementing Evidence-Based Practice: The Guideline presents a step-by-step strategy for introducing evidence-based practice in pressure ulcer prevention. It involves designing a comprehensive prevention protocol, staff training, teamwork approach, and evaluation of the results.
PICOT Question
In healthcare, pressure ulcers, also known as bedsores or pressure sores, pose significant issues in nursing homes and, more generally, in places where people stay in bed for a long time, especially the elderly (Mishra & Bhattacharya, 2022). These lesions cause separation from the combined effects of prolonged pressure, friction, and shear at a site in the skin. The tissue restricting blood flow to the area becomes fine and ultimately dies, forming necrosis. The elderly are an exposed population due to factors like the decrease of skin elasticity, the slow development of circulations, and the comorbidities that impact tissue viability.
PICOT Question:
- Population: Elderly patients in long-term care facilities.
- Intervention: Implementing a structured pressure ulcer prevention protocol.
- Comparison: Conventional care without a standardized prevention protocol.
- Outcome: Reduction in the incidence and severity of pressure ulcers.
- Time: Within six months.
Background Information:
Poor skin integrity increases in patients, a challenge in multiple ways and for the caregivers, including pain, augmented infection risks, prolonged hospital stays, and financial woes (Li et al., 2022). Even though there has been considerable progress in the areas of detection and treatment, decubitus ulcers continue to be a big challenge among healthcare professionals. It is better to prevent ten because they can be the most significant cause of discomfort and expense if they take off. The development of effective preventive methods is a clue to the decrease in the prevalence and severity of frustration sores in aged patients.
In long-term care facilities where the elderly might have to carry their legs and lay down for very long periods, the likelihood of getting pressure sores is high. For this reason, developing an effective prevention schedule according to the requirements of this population should stay a top priority. The plan could comprise frequent skin checks, the arrangement of turning schedules, utilization of pressure relieving equipment, the optimization of nutrition, and staff education on how to properly care for the skin (Al & Manna, 2022). NURS FPX 6011 Assessment 3: Implementing Evidence-Based Practice: By regularly applying those strategies, healthcare providers may reduce the chances of patients getting pressure ulcers and improve the quality of care they provide to elderly patients.
NURS FPX 6011 Assessment 3: Action Plan
Recommendations for Practice Change:
To effectively address the issue of pressure ulcers in elderly patients, the following recommendations for practice change will be implemented: To effectively address the issue of pressure ulcers in elderly patients, the following recommendations for practice change will be implemented:
- Structured Prevention Protocol: Create and implement an extensive prevention policy for pressure ulcers based on evidence-based recommendations and practices. The protocol is intended to explain the specific interventions for assessing, avoiding, and managing pressure ulcers in elderly patients.
- Staff Training and Education: Syllabus and training sessions should be created with guidelines that will be provided to healthcare personnel to avoid misunderstandings and violations of the adopted prevention measures. This comprises teaching the proper staging techniques for the skin, re-positioning recommendations, standard use of pressure-relieving electronics, and the documentation demands.
- Multidisciplinary Collaboration: Fuse collaboration healthcare professionals, that is, nurses, physicians, wound care specialists, and dietitians, to help coordinate care and uniformly change the protocol.
- Continuous Quality Improvement: Create channels for regular audit follow-up and ensure the quality of implementation to prevent pressure ulcers. The audit can be performed periodically, the feedback mechanisms will be in place, and the protocol will be adjusted if necessary based on new evidence or feedback from workers who interact with clients directly.
Timeline:
- Month 1: In collaboration with the pressure ulcer chart produced by the evidence-based guidelines and stakeholders, develop the program based on evidence-based guidelines and stakeholder input.
- Month 2: Organize training sessions for the medical personnel on the fresh rules and offer informational tools.
- Month 3-4: Prevention protocol should be applied to each unit within the healthcare facility by complying with the protocol with the
- Month 5-6: Examine and measure the extent of the effectiveness of the prevention protocol during the annual audits by collecting data regularly. Determine the opportunities for growth and get started on the changes that will lead to the required effectiveness.
Tools and Resources Needed:
- Evidence-based guidelines and best practice recommendations for pressure ulcer prevention.
- Educational materials and training modules for healthcare staff.
- Pressure-relieving devices and equipment for patient care.
- Data collection tools and software for monitoring and evaluation.
- Collaboration platforms for multidisciplinary communication and coordination.
By following this action plan, the healthcare facility can systematically implement evidence-based practices for pressure ulcer prevention in elderly patients, improving patient outcomes and quality of care.
Stakeholders and Potential Barriers
Stakeholders:
The nursing staff, medical practitioners, wound care professionals, allied health practitioners, administrators, patients, and their families are vital stakeholders in actualizing the pressure injury prevention project. Every stakeholder group has a significant reason to join the project since they all play an essential role in the protocol preparation, training, implementation, and continual support.
NURS FPX 6011 Assessment 3 – Opportunities for Innovation:
Innovation in pressure ulcer prevention can be achieved on several levels, including using information technology for risk assessment and monitoring, innovative, customized pressure relieving devices, and telemedicine for remote wound care consultations. Innovative initiatives for pressure ulcers may increase this work’s efficacy and efficiency and, therefore, patients’ comfort.
Potential Barriers and Mitigation Strategies: Countless efforts have been made to ensure privacy and data ownership for digital users, leading to a more extended debate on regulating or controlling technology.
The staff in your organization may resist changes, lack support or resources, have poor training, and have many other priorities that will distract from the change. To overcome these barriers, specific actions could be taken: To overcome these barriers, specific actions could be taken:
- Staff Education and Training: Ensure adequate training and education are introduced to personnel, as retraining is obligatory and acceptance is critical.
- Resource Allocation: Adopt getting more resources by hiring more staff and providing more equipment and supplies to aid the program’s implementation.
- Change Management Strategies: Take advantage of essential change management techniques like communicating effectively, engaging stakeholders, and leadership support for resistance to change mitigation and creating a culture of continuous improvement.
- Collaboration and Engagement: To achieve the project’s objectives, encourage stakeholder collaboration through regular meetings, frequent feedback, and interdisciplinary rounds.
By foreseeing and removing barriers, healthcare organizations can maximize the likelihood of successful implementation and sustainability of pressure ulcer prevention and management, which can be effective and time-saving.
Outcome Criteria
Outcome criteria for evaluating the evidence-based practice project in pressure ulcer prevention may include: Outcome criteria for assessing the evidence-based practice project in pressure ulcer prevention may consist of:
Demonstrate the percentage decrease we had for pressure ulcers among elderly patients while documenting a defined period. Evaluate the stage of pressure ulcers using established scales (for example, the Braden Scale) to enable medication that supports faster healing and improvement. Question patients and their families to measure their satisfaction with preventing pressure ulcers by addressing them, inviting them to participate in the decision-making, and perceiving the quality of the care.
Encouraging diverse thinking and collaboration through group projects or activities, where different opinions are incorporated and shared, helps develop different perspectives and alternatives (Grossmann, 2022). Using quantitative data to drive evidence-based practice development of guidelines and policies will be the key outcomes of the intervention implementation. It will help determine the most effective prevention interventions. NURS FPX 6011 Assessment 3: Implementing Evidence-Based Practice: Such information enables the establishment of existing protocols and the introduction of new guides or policies for using pressure ulcers in healthcare settings prevention. In addition, such outcomes provide the providers with much-desire evidence to support evidence-based practice and pressure ulcer prevention programs that would get the providers’ allocation of resources to support the further development of these programs.
Evaluation of Evidence
The quality of the evidence for change in pressure ulcer prevention practice and its relevance to the patient and the health care worker were evaluated using a systematic search. From scrutiny of peer-reviewed journals, clinical guidelines, and systematic reviews, tremendous evidence was gathered on the effectiveness of interventions such as continuous repositioning, pressure-relieving devices, and assessment protocols to prevent skin breakdown (Antony et al., 2023). Applying these measures, which involved staff education, skin assessment, proper nutrition, skincare, and pressure relief, was highly effective in reducing the rates and severity of bedsores in elders in various long-term care settings. More than that, the study’s conclusion revealed that evidence-based prevention strategies have economic and clinical advantages, which improve patient outcomes and save costs.
NURS FPX 6011 Assessment 3 – Summary of Findings:
The literature results support the idea that research-based pressure ulcer prevention protocols should be considered pillars against pressure ulcers among the elderly. Healthcare organizations can create a structured prevention protocol based on the known evidence to prevent pressure ulcer development and improve patient outcomes.
Search Strategy and Databases Used:
The search protocol involved accessing sources like PubMed, CINAHL, and Cochrane Library using keywords such as “pressure ulcer prevention,” “elderly patients,” “interventions,” and “clinical guidelines” to identify publications within the last five years that were pertinent to the subject. Studies, systematic reviews, and clinical practice guidelines that had high validity and reliability were the ones selected to support
References
Al, A. M., & Manna, B. (2022, October 17). Wound pressure injury management. National Library of Medicine; StatPearls Publishing. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK532897/
Antony, L., Kelly, A. S., & Mathew, J. M. (2023). Evidence-based clinical practice guidelines for caregivers of palliative care patients on preventing pressure ulcers. Indian Journal of Palliative Care, 29(1), 1–7. https://doi.org/10.25259/IJPC_99_2022
Crunden, E. A., Worsley, P. R., Coleman, S. B., & Schoonhoven, L. (2022). Barriers and facilitators to reporting medical device-related pressure ulcers: A qualitative exploration of international practice. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 135(6), 104–326. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2022.104326
Grossmann, C. (2022, August 22). Five ways to promote workplace diversity through employee engagement. Beekeeper. https://www.beekeeper.io/blog/5-ways-promote-workplace-diversity/
Li, Z., Marshall, A. P., Lin, F., Ding, Y., & Chaboyer, W. (2022). Registered nurses’ approach to pressure injury prevention: A descriptive qualitative study. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 78(8), 2575–2585. https://doi.org/10.1111/jan.15218
Mishra, R. K., & Bhattacharya, S. (2022). Pressure ulcers: Current understanding and newer modalities of treatment. Indian Journal of Plastic Surgery, 48(1), 4–16. https://doi.org/10.4103/0970-0358.155260
Zaidi, S. R. H., & Sharma, S. (2022). Pressure ulcer. PubMed; StatPearls Publishing. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK553107/
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