Date of Conferral

2018

Degree

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)

School

Nursing

Advisor

Joanne Minnick

Abstract

Although guidelines and minimal standards for the care and documentation of wounds in home health care settings in the United States are available, there is a lack of compliance among many home health care agencies (HHAs) with regard to the accuracy of wound documentation and care of wounds. Failure to follow guidelines for wound care according to Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and Home Health Outcome and Assessment Information System standards could result in loss of revenue for HHAs, improper treatment of wounds, and legal ramifications. The purpose of this doctoral project was to develop and validate a staff educational module on wounds and wound documentation for an HHA. Benner's from-novice-to-expert model was the conceptual framework for understanding nurses' matriculation. The practice-focused question focused on whether a wound staff educational module increased the home health care nurse's knowledge about wounds and wound documentation. A 5-level Likert scale was used by an expert panel to validate the staff educational module. Descriptive analysis was used to evaluate the data. The results of the survey supported implementing the educational module with recommendations (overall percentage 93% [4.4]). The findings of this project contribute to social change by increasing nurses' knowledge of wound care, improving the quality of wound care, increasing reimbursement and revenue, and decreasing the cost of care for wounds.

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