Give me Julia Childs’ best recipe and I’ll follow it to the letter. But I’m quite certain that the end result would be quite different from what you would have found on Julia’s dining room table.
Today, at a meeting of our senior staff, we reviewed one of our exciting new clinical centers of excellence. The presentation was given by Judy Sojack and at one point, I asked her to provide a sound bite on why this new program in wound care treatment demonstrates VNAB’s innovation and why it would be of interest to a referring hospital CEO and managed care company CEO. I heard about ensuring excellent and consistent training of staff and the adoption of aggressive outcomes goals. I also heard how our wound care performance is already class leading. Objective data comparing us to other home care agencies demonstrates that in spades.
The highlight of Judy’s comments came when she described wound care as “similar to cooking”. Here, in Judy’s words:
Wound care is like cooking…..
It applies principles of biology, chemistry and physics. Wound care protocols are similar to recipes or formulas. There are hands-on skills which must be mastered.
Like cooking, wound care is an art as well as a science. Each wound is different because each patient is different. Their medical problems, functional capacity, health attitudes and personality influence their ability to heal. The individual architecture of each wound requires a customized approach to care. Creativity often contributes to a successful outcome.
The science of wound healing can be taught in the classroom, but the art of wound care must be taught at the patient’s side. Expert role models must guide clinicians in acquiring the hands-on skills and developing holistic, creative plans for wound healing.
VNA of Boston is committed to developing a wound care program that applies principles of wound healing and research based interventions, in conjunction with a holistic, multi-disciplinary approach to wound healing. We are working to ensure that our clinicians have advanced wound care skills and can partner with our physicians and patients to achieve successful outcomes.
Judith Sojack RN, BSN
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