Beth Melanson, MS, RN, ACNS-BC, CWOCN, Whitney Sayman, MSN, RN, PCCN, CWOCN, and Kylie Geikie, BSN, CWOCN, evaluate products for a wound and ostomy patient

Delivering high-quality, safe care – including preventing hospital-acquired infections – is a priority throughout the hospital.

In 2019, nursing leaders created a comprehensive plan to reduce the rate of hospital-acquired pressure injuries (HAPI).

Katie Fillipon, MSN, RN, OCN, FNP-BC, vice president of Nursing, and Tanya Martel, DNP, RN, FNP-BC, CWOCN, director of Inpatient Wound, Ostomy, and Continence Nursing, examined factors contributing to the prevalence of HAPI.

They advocated for and received approval to bring more resources to the bedside in support of this goal, including:

  • Increasing the Wound, Ostomy, and Continence nurses (WOCN) full-time equivalents (FTEs) from 2.5 to 6 full-time positions
  • Engaging consistent skin champions to provide education, in-services and support for colleagues on their units
  • Improving treatment recommendations and guidelines
  • Establishing an interprofessional Wound, Ostomy, and Continence Task Force that meets monthly, provides education to clinical nurses and conducts quarterly prevalence rounds
  • Since implementing these changes, our HAPI incidence and severity have decreased, and nursing documentation of HAPIs upon admission has improved.
  • During the most recent quarter of 2022, we achieved our goal of a HAPI prevalence rate of less than 3 percent, with a rate of 2.5 percent throughout the hospital.

Why It’s Magnet

Magnet designation requires an example of an assistant vice president’s or nurse director’s advocacy for resources to support an organizational goal as part of the Transformational Leadership (TL3a) component of the Magnet model. This is one of many examples throughout the Brigham demonstrating how nursing leaders advocate for resources to improve the delivery of high-quality care. It’s who we are.

A special thanks to all our incredible clinical nurses for their work during HAPI prevalence days, which gave nursing leaders the data needed to make these important changes.