By
Cathy Thomas Hess, RN, BSN, CWOCN

Course Outline

Rev up your skin and wound care with the latest products and approaches.

Get up-to-date on practice

• Evidence-based therapies and skills for rapid wound healing
• Crucial lab values for wound assessment and monitoring
• Essential skin care and wound prevention techniques, including nutrition guidelines
• The Joint Commission’s latest pressure ulcer protocol
• HCPCS reimbursement codes

Select the right product for your patient

• More than 80 skin care products - liquid skin protectants, moisture barriers and moisturizers, and topical antifungals and antimicrobials
• More than 300 wound care products
• More than 150 additional skin and wound care products - including compression and conforming bandages, elastic bandage rolls, gauze, tape, and wound cleansers and pouches

And more:

• Body mass index
• Wagner ulcer grade classification
• Braden scale
• Treatment algorithms
• Ankle-brachial index
• Selected references
• Manufacturer resource guide with Web addresses

Process Steps for Formulary Checklist

Clinical decision making for skin and wound management depends on the types of patients managed in your care settings, the skill sets of the clinicians making the decisions for those patients, and the products available in the facility to improve skin and wound care. Skin and wound care requires a process-driven management approach. Each process step has a specific goal to achieve successful wound healing over time:

1. Perform a needs assessment.
   Goal: To accurately capture the types of skin and wound care needs in your facility
   
   
2. Developed an operational formulary.
   Goal: To provide all tests and services needed for your skin and wound care patients
   
   
3. Develop a skin and wound care product formulary.
   Goal: To provide the proper skin and wound care products to your patients
   
   
4. Develop documentation pathways.
   Goal: To provide an accurate documentation platform to support direct patient care and reimbursement
   
   
5. Develop educational and competency validation pathways.
   Goal: To support all staff education and competency activities for giving skin and wound care
   
   
6. Identify levels of practicing professionals.
   Goal: To establish a multidisciplinary, comprehensive program to manage your complex skin and wound care patient population
   
   
7. Develop patient-teaching pathways.
   Goal: To provide the proper patient-caregiver skin and wound care education across the continuum of care