Speakers
Description
The City of Ottawa Long-term Care Services operates four Long-Term Care homes. In 2025, they identified pressure injury prevention and wound management as priorities after wound indicators remained elevated. In November 2025, a Skin Wellness Associate Nurse (SWAN)-supported approach was introduced across four long-term care homes to strengthen staff knowledge, assessment, prevention, escalation, treatment and documentation related to pressure injuries and complex wounds. This initiative aimed to build frontline staff wound care capacity and improve wound monitoring and management.
Implementation was guided by RNAO’s Best Practice Guideline, Pressure injury management: Risk assessment, prevention and treatment. Strategies included coaching to frontline staff, reinforcing prevention practices, earlier identification and escalation of concerns, and closer collaboration among the nurse practitioner, wound care physician, in-house physicians, registered nurses and registered practical nurses. The approach was tailored across the four municipal homes. Vacuum-assisted closure therapy was used when clinically appropriate, with transition to standard dressings as wounds improved. In early 2026, the PointClickCare Skin and Wound module was introduced to support standardized assessment, documentation and monitoring.
Early evaluations included baseline wound indicator data, implementation activities across the four homes and a de-identified case example supported by serial wound images. Baseline 2025 indicators confirmed the need for improvement. At the City of Ottawa-Peter D. Clark Long-Term Care Home, early post-implementation monitoring showed the proportion of residents with Stage 2–4 pressure ulcers declined from 9.89% in November 2025 to 5.62% in March 2026. Over the same period, new Stage 2–4 pressure injuries declined from 5.17% to 3.05%. Early observations across the four City-run homes also suggested improved consistency in assessment, escalation, interprofessional collaboration and documentation.
Findings suggest a SWAN-supported, interprofessional wound care model can strengthen frontline capacity, support evidence-based practice change and provide a foundation for ongoing improvement and improved resident outcomes in long-term care.
Author(s) Credentials and Title
Trevor Badour. Registered Practical Nurse/SWAN, Angela Overdulve Registered Practical Nurse/SWAN
What RNAO BPG or tool/toolkit is your abstract related to?
RNAO Best Practice Guideline, Pressure injury management: Risk assessment, prevention and treatment.
| Organization Name | City Of Ottawa. Peter D Clark |
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