Social media in wound care

Entering the Mölnylcke Scholarship

I feel the field of tissue viability is advancing by the day and it excites me to see how the specialist service evolves; each day we come across new problems and new challenges which require us to seek ways of improving services for patients. In my previous role as a  district nurse I saw the impact the tissue viability service has on patient care, and now I am a member of the team.  I feel we are at the heart of making a difference to care; we have an integral part to play in the education of many healthcare professionals, staff, patients and carers across all levels.

Since starting in this role 9 months ago I have developed the practical skills required as a tissue viability nurse and I have learnt skills which continue to develop around service improvement, people management, influencing others, team working, and self-empowerment for the patients.

We have been working closely with local district nurse teams providing support to each of them, advising about guideline use and promoting best practice to ensure the patients are receiving the best care possible. I have felt very passionate around working to make this service improvement possible as I recall how learning from a specialist nurse built my confidence. We are now seeing an improvement in the team interaction with the service, a reduction in pressure ulcers, improved effective clinical assessments and treatments by patients are having access to the right professionals at the bedside.

The year ahead

My plan for the year is to promote the use of social media in the world of tissue viability aiming to target the community services, practice nurses and the isolated staff in nursing homes. The goal will be to raise awareness of the TV service, to share current best practice in the form of a closed Facebook group 'posts', and 'tweets' to guide staff to use the service website where there is a wealth of information and resources.

This social media plan will also support the networking around Coventry & Warwickshire Partnership Trust with registered nurses and encourage them to attend training and utilise resources to support them with revalidation.

I have planned posts over the next few months which reflect the themes identified as learning points for community services based on our scoping work with community staff. We have planned to link to national campaigns and events within the media linking to other health awareness campaigns sharing relevant information to the staff.

Tools and resources required to help fulfil this new objective for this year to make this achievable would be the opportunity to work alongside individuals in the marketing area to support with promotion of this page, promotional materials to encourage staff to use the page. I would love to devise business cards with the page details and contact details for the service to hand out when in contact with staff. Training around the use of social media in the health care setting to use this to its full advantage.

We hope this social media model will continue to grow and encourage interaction through a closed face book group; we will also identify times when the staff can ask questions and receive replies from a wound care sister around wound care treatments, current initiatives, and referral routes and can offer support and guidance.