Applicable Nursing Theory Utilized
Jean Watson’s theory of Human Caring is applicable to the given project as it focuses on health promotion and highlights the need for nurses to provide patients with holistic care. Informing nurses about Watson’s caring theory may help return them to their deep professional roots and values, such as beneficence, nonmaleficence, and veracity. By upholding these values, the theory is expected to facilitate the education of nurses on the subject of pressure ulcer prevention and transcend them to the state in which nursing is seen as a gratifying profession. It is worth mentioning that Watson’s theory may assist nurses in expanding their own actualization. Moreover, one may also state that the theory supports microclimate management since one of its causative factors is creating a healing environment at all levels, including a physical one.
Proposed Implementation Plan with Outcome Measures
The suggested action plan for pressure ulcer prevention includes mobilization of the interprofessional team. Then, the staff education program should be elaborated on by the DNP practice scholar. Using a rigorous scientific methodology and considering specific conditions of a healthcare setting, pressure ulcer prevention protocol should be created by the interprofessional team. The protocol will incorporate a PU risk assessment approach on the basis of the Braden scale (Kwong, Hung, & Woo, 2016). The designed protocol should be introduced to nurses to guide their practice further. The frequencies of assessing the risk of PUs should be determined in accordance with human resources. Before implementing the proposed PU prevention protocol, the training sessions for nurses should be conducted by the research team (Ranzani, Simpson, Japiassú, & Noritomi, 2016). Topics covered may include the use of tools to assess the risk of pressure ulcers, skin assessments, the impact of daily care on pressure injuries, as well as the ways of using the designed protocol. Also, nurses should be educated about the impact of microclimate on the development of pressure ulcers and the need for keeping low humidity and cool air.
Outcomes of the project will be measured based on the achievement of its objectives. The overall effectiveness of the new protocol will be based on the reduction in the prevalence rate of hospital-acquired pressure injuries among patients of an acute care unit on day three of hospitalization, as compared with patients receiving standard care. If the reduction in the number of PUs is statistically significant, it will be possible to conclude that the suggested interventions have a positive impact on the prevention of PUs. It is also important to assess the effectiveness of nursing education using questionnaires.
Potential Barriers to the Plan Implementation
One of the major barriers to the implementation of the given plan is the nurses’ unwillingness to embrace change. If nurses refuse to employ the new protocol in their routine practice or use it appropriately, the whole project may fail. This particular barrier may be overcome by strong leadership and the creation of an environment that could foster the change. It is crucial that interprofessional leaders collaborate on a shared mission and motivate nurses to use new practices. Also, members of a research team are recommended to use communication strategies to educate nurses about the need for the practice change. Another potential barrier is an insufficient number of human resources. In this case, the size of the experimental group should be reduced to ensure that nurses have enough time to follow the protocol appropriately, assessing the risk of PUs at the required frequencies.
References
Kwong, E. W., Hung, M. S., & Woo, K. (2016). Improvement of pressure ulcer prevention care in private for-profit residential care homes: An action research study. BMC Geriatrics, 16(1), 1-14. Web.
Ranzani, O. T., Simpson, E. S., Japiassú, A. M., & Noritomi, D. T. (2016). The challenge of predicting pressure ulcers in critically ill patients: A multicenter cohort study. Annals of the American Thoracic Society, 13(10), 1775-1783. Web.