Journal Articles

Standardising wound care documentation in clinical practice

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Standardising wound care documentation in clinical practice

Janine Shepard, Marnie Nixon
1 March 2013

Across the UK, there is no standardised approach to wound assessment and documentation (Dowsett, 2009), or collection of wound healing rate data. Aim: This article outlines an initiative to improve the assessment and documentation of wound care in a community setting.Methods: The authors have devised a new package of wound care documentation, which incorporates a visual healing graph adapted from the National Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel (NPUAP, 1998) Pressure Ulcer Score for Healing (PUSH) tool. This tool provides a standardised, evidence-based, visual approach to wound assessment and documentation. The new approach is named the Wound Healing Assessment and Management (WHAM) tool. Results: Use of the tool has demonstrated improvements in the quality of care that patients receive in relation to wound care and improvements in quality of life. Conclusion: The WHAM tool shapes holistic assessment,supports clinical judgement, ensuresregular evaluation, and initiates consistent, regulated practice.

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