Skin Tears in an aging population: Workforce empowerment - Evaluation of a First Responder Skin Tear Wound Management Pack

What is it about?

Skin tears are defined as a break in the skin greater than 2cm, also known as cuts, lacerations, grazes or skin tears. Skin tears can occur in many different scenarios, such as a mechanical fall or incidental shear or friction and are most common in the elderly population.2 The correct dressing choice is required to address coagulation status, infection risk, wound product wastage, pain and quality of life management for the resident. Sussman and Ryan (2019, p. 11)9 issued a statement to the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety Royal Commission on behalf of Wounds Australia (2019) and noted that ‘The major risks of the use of inappropriate dressings are: delayed healing, wound deterioration, potential infection, pain and stress to the consumer. The impact on cost of treatment of using inappropriate products is significant’. There are various products in place at present in the aged care sector to manage skins tears. Currently, these options require the skilled nurse to use an aseptic technique and a combination of various products, as well as a dressing pack, to address the complexity of the aging skin. This study evaluated the introduction of a First Responder Skin Tear Wound Management Pack (STWMP). The primary aim of the eight-week project, applied across four aged care sites, was to evaluate the implementation of a first responder STWMP in which any health care worker could apply the correct regime, decreasing the risk of progression of a skin tear to a chronic or complex wound. The results showed a reduction in skin tear time, therefore an increased rate of healing and reduction in staff time, all creating a reduction in the burden of disease that skin tears have in the aged care sector. In addition, it highlighted some design features and early data to inform further research into the impact of pre-education and socialisation of the first responder STWMP in practice. The first responder STWMP clearly has the potential to promote best and early practices for all residents’ skin in a multidisciplinary team with a resident-centred approach.

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