Here are some resources of value to your practice.
National Guideline Clearinghouse
The National Guideline Clearinghouse, supported by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, summarizes many guidelines of interest to wound care, ostomy, and lymphedema clinicians. Here are some examples:
- Guideline for management of wounds in patients with lower-extremity neuropathic disease
- Pressure ulcer prevention and treatment protocol
- Lower limb peripheral arterial disease: diagnosis and management
- Screening for intimate partner violence and abuse of elderly and vulnerable adults: U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommendation statement.
You can search for guidelines and compare more than one guideline.
Patient Safety Primers
You can access Patient Safety Primers from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). Each primer defines a topic, offers background information, and highlights relevant content from AHRQ. Here is a sample of available resources:
- Checklists. Although simple in structure, the humble checklist can be a powerful tool for improving patient safety.
- Disruptive and unprofessional behavior. This primer includes ideas for preventing this type of destructive behavior.
- Handoffs and signouts. Although geared toward hospitals, many of the principles in this primer can be applied to other settings, such as long-term care.
Diabetic foot screen
Download a copy of Inlow’s 60-Second Diabetic Foot Screen, posted by the Canadian Association of Wound Care. The tool can help screen persons with diabetes to prevent or treat diabetes-related foot ulcers and/or limb-threatening complications.
The study “Reliability and predictive validity of Inlow’s 60-Second Diabetic Foot Screen Tool” reported that the tool has “excellent” inter-rater and intra-rater reliability, and provided preliminary information about the tool’s validity.
