Pressure Ulcer Prevention
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RISK ASSESSMENTS HELP TARGET INTERVENTIONS
The risk assessment and the reassessments serve two purposes. First, they quantify a resident's PU risk level, so you can monitor whether the person is getting "better" or "worse" over time. Equally important, they help pinpoint the reasons why a resident is at risk, so you can intervene to reduce that risk.
The Braden Scale, for example, assesses six PU risk factors:
- a resident's sensory perception,
- skin moisture,
- activity level,
- mobility,
- usual food intake, and
- exposure to friction and shear.
Each time you use this scale to assess a resident, you come to know that resident--and his or her risk profile--better. This knowledge, reflected in the ratings for each risk area, enables you to tailor intervention services to this particular individual. This ability not only can improve clinical care and resident outcomes, it can also save staff time, making good care more affordable. How so? Because when you target intervention services to identified needs you avoid the costly mistake of providing unnecessary care.
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