Running head: WOUND CARE REFLECTION PAPER 1

Wound Care Reflection Paper

Maheen Tajuddin

NUR 4243

February 23, 2020

I pledge
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Process

As nurses, we take care of wounds all the time in the hospital. I have noticed that when

the wound care consult is ordered, supplies upon supplies are stacked up in the patient’s room.

The nurses are charging the patients for each item used but I still see unopened packets being

thrown away. This costs the hospital and the patient money. It is using up valuable hospital

supplies and overcharging the patient for something they didn’t use. For my Wound Care

presentation topic, I knew I was going to have to do a lot of research. I had this thought when I

first started working and now I had the opportunity to research various alternatives and the costs

for each one. The first thing I had to research is exactly how much wound care costs for the

patients and how much was being spent on various types of wounds. Through observation from

the hospital room, I identified three different alternatives to help save the patient and the hospital

money. I used Google scholar for most of my presentation to find different facts and information,

as relevant as possible.

Researching different information was quite a challenge, as I would spend hours upon

hours trying to find the cost for the patient for wound care services. During my research, I was

unable to find how much a wound care consult costs for the patient, but I was able to find a

couple of supplies that everyday wound care needs. This particular source was from an article in

the newspaper that had interviewed a couple of patients about the services and supplies they

were charged for during their hospital stay. That was as close as I came to for finding out about

the cost of certain items. To address these challenges, I just had to keep researching and

changing my presentation to match what I could find. Regarding the alternatives, I knew that the

first alternative would be to just let the patient take home the supplies. I knew that alternative

would save the patient and the hospital money. Another challenge I found was researching
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information for Wound Care Clinics. I again wasn’t able to find the detailed cost of running a

Wound Care Clinic, but I was able to find a source that identifies how much one wound care

session is for a Wound Care Clinic in Colorado

Presentation

My targeted audience was the patients. When I made my Powerpoint for this group, I had

to be careful in the medical terminology I used. I first started off with an introduction of a wound

and how wounds are handled in the hospital. Some patients have never had a wound while in the

hospital and don’t know how a wound care consult happens or how the wound is evaluated by

the team. I included that in the Powerpoint and tried to stay away from medical terms and tried to

explain things from their perspective. I tried to find numbers and costs that applied to them to see

how much of their money was being wasted as we throw away items we already charged them

for. I had to also be careful not to favor too much for one side. I wanted to be the common

ground between the hospital and the patients, so I am saving both of their resources.

Reflection

From this research, I realized that it is not easy to implement or start a change process. A

lot of things need to be considered such as: the audience, how to present the information to them,

staying away from bias information, and to find costs that directly affect our patients. After all

the information has been presented, there needs to be a way that an alternative is chosen, put into

application and then evaluated to see if that alternative works. If it doesn’t, then another strategy

should be put into play to see if this will save the patient’s and the hospital’s money. When I first

started working in this profession, someone told me how much the normal saline flushes costs

for us and how much we charge the patient. If we can charge the patients 10x more just to flush

out their IV lines, who knows how much extra we are charging the patient for over the counter
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items. We were always taught to buy things we only need and will use on a consistent basis.

However, we are doing the exact opposite of what we were taught: we are throwing away

supplies for wound care that have probably never been opened but have been charged.

As for myself, I have gained perspectives about myself and the finances for the hospital.

When deciding to make a change, there are so many factors that one needs to think about. We

have to think about the effectiveness and efficiency of the change, its’ safety, the cost, and the

availability and affordability of all the alternatives set forth. As per finances, the hospital is a

business. It’s profit and loss depend on the resources we use and the patients we treat. Although

as nurses, our priority is our patients, we have to also take care of the hospital and its resources.

Along with that, we also need to think about the patient and advocate for them if something isn’t

right. With this research project, it was challenging for me to find a common ground between the

patients and the hospital. These two subjects mean a lot to me and I wouldn’t want to favor one

side or another. This exercise helps me put things into perspective and see from the hospital’s

and finance/ resource departments eyes. Change isn’t easy and requires cooperation from all

levels of the hospital, from the nurses up to the CEOs. If we can all think of one way to improve

processes and think from both standpoints, then we can provide the best quality of care for all

our patients and have them become more independent with their wound care.