Critique of Article Related to Advocacy, Accountability, and Responsibility
In 2011, the Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center (VCUMC) conducted a study to see how they could prevent pressure ulcers in high-risk cardiac surgery patients. This article highlights unique strategies, practices, and research to assist health care providers with pressure ulcer prevention in critical care units and settings where critically ill patients are present. Prevention of ulcers can be a troublesome task for chronically ill cardiac patients. The VCUMC found it very important to assess for pressure ulcers more frequently than on a monthly basis. They created ingenuities to enhance the patient care experience related to pressure ulcer prevention.
The nurse must redistribute pressure frequently in order to reduce the presence of pressure ulcers, especially in high-risk postoperative cardiac patients, because they may be more susceptible due to delayed sternal closure or “open chest.” The article suggests that in patients with “open chest”; the nurse should turn the patient very slowly every two hours to minimize hemodynamic changes. The nurse must be responsible enough to follow instructions and make sure the patient is being turned the correct way. It is vital that the nurse be accountable for his or her own actions if something goes wrong before, during, or after the turning period. The author of this article, Danielle Cooper, emphasizes the importance of turning patients every two hours and if the patient is “too unstable to turn” and that they must reassess every eight hours to determine if the patient is stable enough to return to periodic turning.
The nurse has a key role in assisting the patient obtain optimal health and it is the nurse’s responsibility to detect a pressure ulcer and ensure that they take the necessary precautions to prevent it from getting