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Poster PI-003

Accelerating Wound Care Competency Development, Management and Documentation

Elaine Song, MD, PhD, MBA

Dr. Subhas Gupta, MD, CM, PhD, FRCSC, FACS – Chairman of the Department of Plastic Surgery Professor of the Reginald R. Sherrill Endowed Chair in Plastic Surgery, Plastic Surgery & OP Wound Care Services, Loma Linda University Health

Symposium on Advanced Wound Care Spring Spring 2022

Background: Wound care professionals will continue to be in demand, as the population older than 65 years is projected to grow by 25% by 2060.1,2 Wound care clinicians usually have diverse training/experience/background, which can lead to inconsistent care and result in poor outcomes.3,4 To standardize and improve healthcare professionals' knowledge level, the Joint Commission recommends developing a competency program.5,6 However, consistently ensuring clinicians’ competency is difficult, given time and resource constraints. We aimed to create a solution to overcome obstacles in wound care competency development, management and documentation.

Method: Using the Design Thinking methodology7, the solution* was created as a module within a clinical/reimbursement decision support web-application** for wound care/hyperbaric clinicians: Managers/clinicians’ needs, and role-based competency areas in wound care were mappedModule was developed with robust programming language♥/library♦/framework♣Use cases were prioritized; workflows were designedEvidence-based competency templates were created within the moduleUser feedback was incorporated.

Results: The module is a cloud-based, mobile-responsive solution that allows programs to build their own competencies or customize role-specific wound care competency templates to onboard/train staff and manage clinician’s competencies. Use cases include: Onboarding/orientation: provision of initial training and information while assessing the competence of clinical staff relative to job responsibilities Competency management: strengthening of knowledge, skills and ability in wound care areas of competence relevant to each role (e.g.medical assistant/nurse/nurse practitioner/ physician/etc), with documentation of preceptor feedback/oversight, pre- and post-assessment. Clinical internship for professional certification: provision of framework/documentation of clinical internship required for certification (e.g.of hyperbaric technologists). Remote training: assignment of modules (e.g.debridement, compression) coupled with preceptor’s teleassistance.

Discussion/conclusion: A solution to accelerate wound care competency development, management and documentation was created. Users’ reported benefits include care standardization, increased efficiency in employee onboarding/orientation, and ability to track competencies for employee development, licensure, certification and facility accreditation.

References

References1. Sen, C. K. Human wound and its burden: updated 2020 compendium of estimates. Adv Wound Care (New Rochelle) 10, 281–292 (2021).2. U.S. Census Bureau. Older People Projected to Outnumber Children. U.S. Census Bureau https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2018/cb18-41-population-projections.html (2018).3. Williams, E. M. & Deering, S. Achieving competency in wound care: an innovative training module using the long-term care setting. Int. Wound J. 13, 829–832 (2016).4. Corriveau, G., Couturier, Y. & Camden, C. Developing competencies of nurses in wound care: the impact of a new service delivery model including teleassistance. J. Contin. Educ. Nurs. 51, 547–555 (2020).5. Mize, J. & Hamm, T. Quality of Care Requires Ongoing Competency Evaluations. Woundreference.com https://woundreference.com/blog?id=competency-assessments (2021).6. The Joint Commission. About Our Standards | The Joint Commission. https://www.jointcommission.org/standards/about-our-standards/ (2021).7. Ferreira, F. K., Song, E. H., Gomes, H., Garcia, E. B. & Ferreira, L. M. New mindset in scientific method in the health field: Design Thinking. Clinics 70, 770–772 (2015).8. Kielo, E., Suhonen, R., Salminen, L. & Stolt, M. Competence areas for registered nurses and podiatrists in chronic wound care, and their role in wound care practice. J. Clin. Nurs. 28, 4021–4034 (2019).

Trademark

* Competency Tool, Wound Reference, Inc., San Francisco, CA** WoundReference Clinical Decision Support Web-App, Wound Reference, Inc., San Francisco, CA♥ Microsoft C#, Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA♦ jQuery, open source JavaScript Library♣ .Net4.5, Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA

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