Nurses Pilot Pressure Ulcer Prevalence Survey

Nurses left no patient unturned in the hospital’s first pressure ulcer prevalence survey day in May.

As part of the Patients First Initiative of the Massachusetts Hospital Association and the Massachusetts Organization of Nurse Executives, BWH nurses assessed 491 patients in the Tower and on CWN-7 for skin breakdown and to determine how many patients had hospital-acquired pressure ulcers.

Staff nurses Stephanie Capello, BSN, RN, of 15CD, Marian Fitzgerald, RN, of 14AB, several nurse educators, the wound and ostomy clinical nurse specialists and others traveled in pairs to cover every pod. Staff nurses on the pod assessed their patients and documented any skin breakdown, its stage and location. Then, two members of the expert survey team assessed each patient who was reported by staff to have a skin issue to validate the staff’s assessment. There was a 74 percent agreement rate between the staff’s assessment and that of the expert survey team.

Unit nurse managers reviewed the patient chart to determine if the skin breakdown occurred during the patient’s stay at BWH and when it was identified.

“It took extra effort from nurses to make these skin assessments and document findings for the survey, but everyone understood the importance of this effort in relation to improving practice and it went smoothly,” Capello said.