Authors (including presenting author) :
SZE S, LEE P, CHEUNG SY, Yuen K, Chiu J, CHAN OF, LAM CM, WOO LC, NG WP
Affiliation :
Department of Medicine & Geriatrics (M&G), Shatin Hospital
Introduction :
Skin tears are commonly seen in older adults because of the fragile skin. It was the third largest group of wounds in the public hospitals in Western Australia. (Stephen et al, 2011).
As a 2-year incidence of skin tear study showed, the incidence was extremely high, up to 30%, at the age of 85 or above. (Paul K et al, 2011)
According to one of the snap shot findings in our hospital, we had almost 40% of patients who were aged more than 85.
So we can estimate that the skin tear prevalence never be low even there was no formal data collection in our setting.
At the same time, we understand that skin tear is always underreported because of underestimation of the risk and misdiagnosed of the wound. As a result, leading of suboptimal prevention and the inappropriate management which may increases the risk of complications development
Objectives :
1) To promote staff awareness in fragile skin care
2) To prevent those avoidable skin tear incident by assessment and implementation of preventive measures
3) To minimize the complication of skin tear by sharing the evidence based practice of its management with frontline staff
Methodology :
1) Referenced worldwide’ s evidence based practice in skin tear prevention and management
2) Formulated the preventive measures and included them in the “wound care plan”, the checklist supplementary care plan, for providing guidance to frontline in its care
3) Conducted the specific training on 21/6/2019 & 23/9/2019 by the train the trainer seminars for promoting staff awareness in skin tear and sharing its prevention and management
4) Evaluated staff’s knowledge by the pre and post-test
Result & Outcome :
1) Total 64 nurses were trained in 2 seminars
2) The result of evaluation was encouraging, average result for
pretest: 1.65/5 and posttest was shot to 4.7/5
3) Will plan an audit in 4Q 2020 for reviewing the management of skin
tear
Conclusion
According to worldwide data, skin tears are commonly seen in older adult, especially in the frail patients.
However, staff awareness in this topic was not high as the pretest result showed. Therefore its promulgation is crucial for us in facing the future challenges in caring of those frail older adults.
