you consider the time
he spent on pre-op
and post-op stretchers.
If unrelieved, that pro-
longed pressure will
cause skin and under-
lying tissue damage.
AORN recommends
making time during
procedures to assess a
patient's position and
intervene if it looks
like there is potential for a pressure injury. This gives the nursing
team the chance to speak up if there are any concerns about patient
positioning.
6. Document
A good documentation system lets you keep track of which proce-
dures and patients are at higher risk for pressure injuries. The
Children's Hospital of Colorado worked with its IT department to stan-
dardize data collection and improve the charting process for staff. This
let them follow up with specific surgical services when pressure ulcers
occurred to counsel them and offer evidence-based suggestions for
improvement. After implementing this and other protocols, their pres-
sure injuries dropped from 20 cases in 2010 to 6 in 2013. Tip for suc-
cess: Creating a link to their documentation procedure in their elec-
tronic charting system made it easier for staff at another facility to
implement their new process.
M A Y 2 0 1 8 • O U T PA T I E N TS U R G E R Y. N E T • 8 3
• FLOAT THE HEELS Use a boot-like heel-suspension device to raise the patient's
heels off the operating surface instead of a pad or piece of egg crate foam, per
AORN guidelines.
Pamela
Bevelhymer,
RN,
BSN,
CNOR
