Wound Nurse Reflection Paper

Today our clinical group participated in the hospital’s wound prevalence day where we helped the wound nurse do head to toe skin assessment to the patients who are not/at risk for developing pressure ulcer and do HillRom/CALNOC study checking the quality of the bed mattresses. In the early morning, we spent our day first thing by reviewing as many charts as possible and filling out the forms needed for the study. Nurse Brittany, the wound nurse, assigned the participants into teams which included one nurse with at least two students to various units. My two other classmates and I were assigned with Samantha, RN to do the prevalence study at Med-Surge and ICU unit. Some of the tasks we did as a group comprised of: assessing the patient; checking the mattress’s condition; counting how many layers of linen the patient uses; checking heels if they are offloaded; noting if patient has secure foley catheter; marking the mattress “G17” for good and “B17” for bad; educating the patient and family on prevention

Before entering the room for assessments, knowing the patient had greater than 18 scores meant they were not at risk for pressure injury. This helped greatly in anticipating the patient’s skin injury prevention education and needs. At the end of the day, my team did not find any pressure sore on the patients in our unit and found only had a few mattresses that were a candidate for replacement. This meant that the nurses did a great a job in assessing the patients’ skin condition as well as determining who were at risk. This also meant the staff worked efficiently in implementing necessary intervention to prevent pressure sore development. The study was a great learning experience for me in the wound nursing department and what they do. In relation to our leadership training, I think this study taught me the importance of prevalence studies and how it contributes to planning effective