Introduction: The world of wound and ostomy care is often a mystery to staff nurses. Wound and ostomy care education given to nurses is brief with rare hands-on opportunities. Our system Wound Ostomy Continence (WOC) group noted poor understanding and confidence with negative pressure therapy, pressure injury treatment and ostomy care. Nurses in this eight hospital system received varying education from non-WOC educators, vendor educators were limited, and there was an unprecedented amount of turnover affecting patient care and outcomes. WOC nurses received many needless consults, observed no attempt to troubleshoot before calling the WOC nurse, and heard reports from nurses too intimidated by wound care to remove dressings.
The purpose of this process improvement project was to create a hands-on, self sustaining wound, pressure injury and ostomy care course, available to the entire hospital system, with the support from the community. The secondary intent was to reduce the number of inappropriate WOC consults.
Methods: We partnered with the education department and our local product vendors to facilitate a quarterly sustainable hands-on wound care masterclass available to all nurses in the division. Four topics were selected (pressure injuries, negative pressure, ostomy care, WOC policy/procedure) to address nursing knowledge gaps. The masterclass could be taught by subject matter experts (vendors), thus freeing WOCs to continue patient care.
Rapid process improvement led to the creation of a companion booklet, continuing education credits offered, and the development of the pediatric/neonatal masterclass.
Results: Centralizing the masterclass standardized the WOC education nurses were getting across all eight facilities, regardless of their access to a WOC nurse. In 2022 the largest hospital saw a 22% decrease in hospital acquired pressure injuries and a 60% reduction in inappropriate WOC consults. The masterclass was successful, sustainable and beneficial to all involved.
Discussion: Providing WOC focused education to staff nurses can improve patient outcomes by increasing their knowledge and comfort with pressure injury prevention and treatment, basic negative pressure therapy and ostomy troubleshooting.