By a large margin, wound care disproportionally affects nursing homes and the elders under their care. But for decades, clinicians have tackled wound care through piecemeal efforts.
“It’s why I’ve dedicated my work and my passion to taking wound care to a much broader direction,” said Jeanine Maguire, vice president of Skin Health & Wound Management Integrations for
Genesis Administrative Services.
Maguire’s decades-long career entitles her to assert that complex wounds require a holistic approach that goes beyond the simple, quick-fix to evaluate and address patient-centered goals.
“Unlike conventional ‘Band-Aid’ efforts that ‘tend to put the focus on the wound and not the human,’ an integrated framework, based on the Universal Wound Model, is recommended to address wound management from a system-thinking approach with an interprofessional perspective,” she said. “This approach can be tailored to most settings and works well in skilled nursing and long-term care given the interprofessional nature of care today.”
Maguire said that achieving great skin health, preventing pressure injuries and managing wounds are important for clinical success, with the focus on satisfaction of the interdisciplinary team and, most importantly, patients and families.
At the core of a nascent Genesis program focused on total skin health is a dedicated skin health team leader, a role typically designed for a registered nurse.
“The role of the team leader is key in team integration, leading the team collaboration with the nursing, therapy, wound care providers, the dietitian, and the resident/patient,” Maguire said.
Nurses and therapists have signed up for the growing program, and those nursing home staff members are given one year to earn wound care certification. The Genesis training program includes a month-long residency, along with intensive coaching.
“One thing I do know is collectively we can do this when we learn to actually work together as a team,” Maguire said. “It is possible to achieve patient-centered care for wound management.”
