Educating Certified Nursing Assistants to Communicate Skin Changes to Reduce Pressure Injuries

Pressure injuries (PIs) are common and costly complications in long-term care (LTC) residents. Educating and coaching certified nursing assistants (CNAs) to communicate early skin changes is a PI surveillance strategy that may influence PI outcomes. A communication guide related to Skin, Clean, Activity, and Nutrition was developed for CNAs to promote prompt upstream communication to licensed nurses. A pre-/post-intervention design measured PI knowledge and skills in 24 CNAs, and PI incidence was tracked over a 6-week time period. CNAs demonstrated improvement in their PI surveillance role, comfort in identifying and reporting skin changes, keeping skin clean and dry, and resident nutritional status. Baseline PI incidence of 9.6% decreased to 0% by Week 3, and no new PIs occurred over 6 weeks. CNAs developed role awareness and knowledge in primary PI surveillance and were instrumental in a team approach to decrease PIs in a LTC setting. [Journal of Gerontological Nursing, 47(8), 21-28.].