Adapting WOC Nursing Practice to the COVID-19 Pandemic: A View From Here.

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic impacts all healthcare providers in all practice settings. As a healthcare provider, specializing in WOC nursing, the “daily routine” of how I provide care to patients, families, and other healthcare providers has been profoundly affected. I find myself focusing not only on pressure injury prevention strategies for my patients but also on skin care for colleagues providing care to our patients. Among the most apparent changes in my practice include the need to educate staff on skin care in patients who require prolonged placement in a prone position and teaching providers to use telehealth for routine WOC care consultations. Lastly, with a decrease in elective surgeries, I was tasked to develop a plan on how to refocus the medical department's various roles and responsibilities during this pandemic. I work in a level 1 Trauma, Academic Medical Center, in central New Jersey. I have been a nurse for 36 years and a WOC nurse for over 30 years. During my tenure, I have endured a strike, hurricanes (including Hurricane Sandy), outbreaks of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), Ebola virus, and the terroristic acts of September 11, 2001. In my environment, we strive to handle such crises as a unified team. I write this View From Here to share my personal views and experience thus far during the COVID-19 pandemic. As a WOC nurse, I also want to share how I believe my education and experience have prepared me to perform the tasks, roles, and responsibilities I have assumed as the pandemic evolves. When I first heard about this novel form of coronavirus infection (COVID-19), I thought it similar to other viruses resulting in regional outbreaks. However, as the virus began to spread across the globe and in my region, my inner instincts about the threat it represented to my community, and my patients, began to change. My perception was also influenced through discussion with my husband, a public health epidemiologist. I began to see the influx of COVID-19 patients into our hospital and noticed how ill they were upon admission and how quickly their condition deteriorated. As an experienced nurse and a WOC nurse, I assumed I was reasonably prepared for every likely scenario, but this situation proved different as I suspect it has proved for you. Nevertheless, I was heartened to realize that my WOC nursing education and experience, along with the education tools, best practice documents, the Journal (JWOCN), and algorithms that the WOCN Society has developed over the years prepared me for even the unprecedented challenges posed by COVID-19. In addition, networking with my WOC nurse colleagues across the country and the WOCN Society COVID-19 forum has also helped me through this national pandemic. At this time, if someone was to ask me what is the most rewarding role that I have played, it would be the initiative that I implemented for preventing pressure injuries for our healthcare providers. While this represents an unforeseen shift from my typical WOC nurse practice, adding colleagues to my broad community of “patients” is especially rewarding.