Pediatric skin integrity practice guideline for institutional use: a quality improvement project

Superior skin care is a nurse-sensitive outcome measure (Young, T., & Clark, M. (2009). Re-positioning for pressure ulcer prevention (protocol). The Cochrane Database of Systematic Review (2009) 3). This study sought to decrease incidence and risk of skin breakdown in the pediatric cardiac intensive care unit (PCICU). The study was conducted in a large hospital in upstate New York. A practice guideline was created and guided PCICU nurses on the interventions for potential skin-breakdown issues in their patients. The patients had a significant change in skin breakdown with a one-sided Fisher's Exact Test (p=.0422). A logistic regression model showed intervention as a significant factor in reducing incidence of pressure ulcers and length of stay (p=.0389).