plan for changing the nursing home’s routine skin care and treatments

Strategic Plan for Nursing Home Practice Change
Name
Institution
Strategic Plan for Nursing Home Practice Change
The routine use of safe and evidence-based interventions in the nursing home would be crucial for the prevention and treatment of skin problems, including skin tears and pressure ulcers. However, this would require a practice change that involves all the staff at every stage of the change process. An appropriate strategic plan guided by clear goals, objectives and strategies could help to bring the desired change in routine skin care and treatments at the nursing home. My goals as an educational coordinator in the nursing home would be to reduce the incidence of skin problems among the patients visiting our nursing home and to improve the quality of skin care and treatments. These goals will be realized by achieving two objectives including the application of safe and new interventions for routine skin care and skin problems and promoting evidence-based practice in the nursing home. Similarly, appropriate strategies that form the basis of an action plan for implementation would be required. First, staff education on the importance of the practice change from the use of unsafe and old interventions for skin care and treatment to safe and new ones would be vital. It would ensure that the staff have an adequate understanding of the intended change and its anticipated benefits to the patients and subsequently reduce their resistance to change. Second, a guideline for the practice change will be developed to help the staff in finding the best evidence for practice.

The guideline will highlight the key steps of evidence-based practice including asking a question, best evidence search, critical appraisal, integration with clinical expertise and patient values and preferences, outcome evaluation, and EBP results dissemination as noted by Melnyk, Fineout-Overholt, Stillwell, and Williamson (2010).
Reference
Melnyk, B. M., Fineout-Overholt, E., Stillwell, S. B., & Williamson, K. M. (2010). Evidence-based practice: step by step: the seven steps of evidence-based practice. AJN The American Journal of Nursing, 110(1), 51-53.