Specialty Certification for Burn Nursing: Value, Beliefs, and Benefits.

Specialty certification for burn nursing will be available in 2023. This review outlines the path taken from specialty recognition by the American Nurses Association to the Certified Burn Registered Nurse certification. Clinical expertise, knowledge, skill, mastery of professional issues, and competence are hallmark features of a nurse specialty certification. A review of resources will illustrate the evolution of burn nursing practice with the development of burn nursing standards, competencies, and characteristics of the professional burn nurse. Resources are identified which outline the value of specialty certification, providing an overview for the impact of burn nursing certification on professional development, nurse satisfaction, and patient outcomes. Burn nurses play a key role in the care and recovery of the burn-injured patient. Since 2017, members of the burn nurse community have taken steps to confirm the role of the modern burn nurse and document standards. As a community, we are now poised to advance our specialty one step further and support the development of a national burn nurse certification examination. This paper provides a historical account of the path taken for burn nurse specialty recognition and national certification to date. The value and impact of specialty certification in general is outlined, thus providing a comprehensive overview for the value and impact of certification on professional development, nurse satisfaction, and patient outcomes.

Medical Adhesive-Related Skin Injury Following Emergent Appendectomy: A Case Study of MARSI and Missed Opportunities in Nursing Care.

BACKGROUND: The potential for skin damage from adhesive products is documented in the literature. Nevertheless, health care providers continue to lack understanding of the impact and seriousness of skin injury associated with use of tapes or other adhesive devices when applied to a patient with a history or hypersensitivity or allergy to adhesives. CASE: A 67-year-old woman with a history of tape allergy underwent emergency appendectomy. Initial removal of an adhesive bandage placed over the surgical incision revealed medical adhesive-related skin injury (MARSI). The largest of the 3 wounds was a Class III skin tear based on the Payne-Martin Classification System. It measured (L) 4.4 cm × (W) 1.8 cm × (D) 0.3 cm and required 3 months to heal. CONCLUSIONS: Experiences with this case revealed the need for evidence-based practice innovations to prevent physical, emotional, and economic cost resulting from MARSI. We recommend early identification and careful documentation of susceptibility to MARSI prior to surgery and implementation of consensus-based recommendations for prevention of MARSI as advocated by the MARSI consensus group when preparing patients for surgery and treating wounds.

Chairman's choice: "slip sliding away"--the importance of quality performance in wound care products.

We outline how a change in the manufacturing of an impregnated gauze dressing product impacts upon wound healing and describe the steps taken by the manufacturer and by the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) in the identification and resolution of the problem. After a change in name and manufacturing vendors, the Burn Dressing Team at the UAB Burn Center noted that the newly named product was stretching, rolling, appeared to have more ointment on it, and created sloughing of skin grafts. Using the Seven-Step Method, the manufacturer and the Burn Dressing Team identified the problem and facilitated a process improvement activity. The UAB validated the redesigned product, and the new product was standardized for production and distribution. This experience at UAB demonstrates businesses working together to achieve a common goal. Such process improvement activities are invaluable to healthcare providers for maintaining standards of healthcare and achieving desired patient outcomes.