2.  Staff RN at Mount Carmel East (MCE) for 6 years  Completed this research as part of Graduate school requirements

3.  I am a member of the Skin Wound Assessment Team (SWAT) at MCE  I found that many RNs struggled to stage pressure ulcers correctly  Created the pressure ulcer staging algorithm that could be used by a RN at the bedside

4.  It has been shown; however, that RN’s do not accurately stage pressure ulcers  Accurate staging of pressure ulcers is important for the care and treatment of pressure ulcers

5.  Literature regarding staging accuracy and education to improve staging accuracy is limited  Educational programs have been found to improve staging accuracy, but one study showed that the RN’s knowledge returned to baseline 20 weeks after the education

6.  Copyright for the Pressure Ulcer Staging Algorithm  Mount Carmel IRB approval

7.  Inpatient units at MCE, MCW, and St Ann’s  Participation voluntary  Nurses were self – identified and randomly assigned by utilizing colored dots

8.  Nurses were shown 10 digital images of actual pressure ulcers obtained from the National Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel  Given 1 minute to view the image and stage the ulcer  Were not told the correct answers or the number of stages that they got correct

9.  All participants were asked to return in 1 month for the post-test  Control group staged the same 10 digital images  Experimental group staged the same 10 digital images by using the Pressure Ulcer Staging Algorithm

10.  All pre-test and post- test scores were calculated and entered into an SPSS database  41 participants  ANCOVA was applied to the data  Confidence index set at.95 and p=.05

11.  Control group  Pre-test= 6.35  Post-test=6.65  Experimental group  Pre-test=6.43  Post-test=7.90

12.  Results suggest that the Pressure Ulcer Staging Algorithm improves the staging accuracy by registered nurses.  Limitations  Small sample  Post-test format

13.  Designing the study  Recruiting participants  Finding participants to take the post-test

14.  Questions?????

15.  Beeckman, D., Schoonhoven, L., Boucque, H., Van Maele, G., & Defloor, T. (2008). Pressure ulcers: E-learning to improve classification by nurses and nursing students. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 1697-1707.  Briggs, S. (2006). How accurate are RGNs in grading pressure ulcers. British Journal of Nursing, 15 (2), 1230-1234.  Dahlstrohm, M., Best, T., Baker, C., Doeing, D., Davis, A., & Doty, J. (2011). Improving identification and documentation of pressure ulcers at an urban academic hospital. The Joint Commision Journal on Quality and Patient Safety, 37 (3), 123-130.  Gunningberg, L., & Ehrenberg, A. (2004). Accuracy and quality in the nursing documentation of pressure ulcers: A comparison of record content and patient examination. Journal of Wound, Ostomy, and Continenc Nursing, 31 (6), 328-335.  Lomax, R. G., & Hahs-Vaughn, D. L. (2012). An introduction to statistical concepts.  London: Routledge Academic.  Tweed, C., & Tweed, M. (2008). Intensive care nurses' knowledge or pressure ulcers:  Development of an assessment tool and effect of an educational program. American  Journal of Critiical Care, 17 (4), 338-346.  Updated staging system. (2007, February). Retrieved September 3, 2012, from National Pressure Advisory Panel: http://www.npuap.org/pr2.htm  Wake, W. (2010). Pressure ulcers: What clinicians need to know. The Permanente Journal, 4 (2), 56-60. 