Jaime started her career as a carer within Care Homes and, working for the last decade in a variety of roles within primary care, her passion for looking after individuals within their own home has grown.

The opportunity to be the first person to undertake this role in NHSH has been hugely exciting for her. She has been in post for 1 year and during this time, a Care Home Liaison Team across NHSH has been established and she continues to work collaboratively with colleagues to provide assurance regarding care standards across the board.

Presentation at The Society of Tissue Viability 2022 Conference

Multi agency: reducing PU in care homes in the Highlands

Objectives

After attending this session, persons will be able to:

• Identify who is at risk of pressure ulceration in Care Homes
• Appreciate the importance of multi agency collaboration to reduce pressure ulcer prevalence.
• Use appropriate risk assessment tools safely
• Understand the Red Day Review Tool in assessing avoidability of pressure ulcers
• Understand the governance and responsibility of reporting incidents of pressure ulceration

Abstract

Pressure Ulcers are an unwanted and often avoidable complication of illness, immobility and frailty. Older people in care homes are amongst the most vulnerable and at very high risk of developing pressure ulcers. It is a highly litigious area within healthcare and the associated governance requires a collaborative approach to improve processes of prevention and improve outcomes for this group of people.

With this in mind and with the implementation of a new Care Home Liaison Service within Highland, the capacity and need to improve PU standards and reduce prevalence was prioritised.

This demanded multi agency Partnership involving the Care Home sector, Care Home Lead Nurse, NHSH Tissue Viability Services and Community Nursing services. The overarching aim was to collate prevalence data, improve risk assessment processes and recording of pressure ulcers and utilise assessment Tools such as Red Day Review Tools to assess avoidibility of damage.