My patients are usually older adults who have serval comorbidities, including type two diabetes and PAD. Which causes most of my patients to have non healing diabetic ulcers making wound care something I care for daily. I chose an article which discusses research for the best interventions for wound care. Depending on the type of wound, size and over all status will determine what interventions would work best for the patient.
The article mentions new wound care dressings to promote the best care for patients. One of the tools discussed is the negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT). “The system uses negative pressure to draw out excess fluid while also stimulating the wound bed and edges to encourage healing. Foam dressings typically used to pack wounds were further developed, for example, to allow cardiac wounds to be treated” (Lumber, 2020). Another tool that is being researched that I was excited to learn about is electroceutical therapy. The studies have shown better management of venous leg ulcers.
Wound care including wound vac dressing changes are part of my daily care interventions I provide for my patients. This is an intervention I like to stay up to date with in order to provide the best care for my patients. “The nurse is responsible for appraising the strength and relevance of evidence when choosing practice interventions” (Masters, 2020, p. 258). Our patients deserve the best care and it’s our role as nurses to provide it.
Lumbers, M. (2020). New tools in wound care to support evidence-based best practice. British Journal of Community Nursing, 25(3). https://doi.org/10.12968/bjcn.2020.25.sup3.s26
Masters, K. (2020). Role development in professional nursing practice (5th ed., p. 667). Jones & Bartlett.
Various units in a hospital look to make nursing care more effective and efficient. With the way information is gathered, and the way change is always occurring in healthcare, new methods to improve healthcare practices arise. The article I chose is an article that discusses trying to implement new practices that show better patient outcomes and how the old practices are difficult to de-implement because of the practitioner being accustomed to using that old/current practice and not wanting to accept change. The saying “if it ain’t broken, don’t fix it” comes to mind when attempting to improve patient care and outcomes with new practices, and the attempt is met with resistance due to fear of change or just plain feeling that the current practice is sufficient. The article discusses how there would be a better amount of communication and a better work flow with the accompanying changes if policies and procedures change along with the practices to make the implementation happen. “To sustain new practice routines, divested practices need accompanying changes in policies/procedures, workflows, documentation and other ongoing reinforcements” (Halm, 2022, p.509). This is a clear definition of what Masters considers to be evidence based practice, as it relies on new and innovative information and practices and not things that “the nurse learned in school 5,10, or 15 years ago.” (2020, p. 249). Evidence based practice helps to give healthcare providers proof that a practice works to give positive health outcomes because it is science based and has been proven because it has been tested in a scientific setting and manner.
I chose this article because I love being a nurse and learning better ways to make people better. It is not always easy to corral a team of colleagues to want to utilize and implement new practices, especially when one has to learn a new policy or procedure and you have been using the prior for a certain amount of time. Complacence can be considered negligence in healthcare. Not wanting to learn new ways to make patients better and can look the same way. This article gives examples of the numbers of how practitioners are resistant to change and the ways policies and procedures can be implemented to facilitate easier transition to new policies and procedures through communication and practice. This will help to improve the use of new practice to gain better patient outcomes on the units.
References
Halm, M. (2022). On low-value nursing care: Part 2 de-implementing practices in your unit. American Journal of Critical Care, 31(6).
doi: 10.4037/ajcc2022835
Masters, K. (2020). Role development in professional nursing practice (5th ed.). Jones & Bartlett.