Pin Site Research Paper

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art & science clinical skills: 46 Care of pin sites Bell A ei al (2008) Care of pin sites. Nursing Standard. 22, 33, 44-48. Date of acceptance: January 7 2008. Summary External fixation is a key component in orthopaedic management. However, the use of metal pins or wires may result in complications, such as pin site infections. To prevent infections pin site care must include effective assessment, monitoring and cleaning of the pin site. Differing methods of pin site management in clinical practice have resulted in inconsistencies in the literature relating to best practice. This article explores some of the variations in pin site care. Authors Angie Bell is practice development nurse and clinical educator, Maria Leader is practice…show more content…
Clinicians should be aware of the distinctions between the normal healing process and the signs of pin site infection (Holmes eifl/2005). Classification systems have been developed to grade the level of pin site infection. These include the Saleh and Scott Classification System (Holmes eíí7/2005). This works by grading infections from 0 to 6, where grade 0 represents no problems and grade 6 indicates chronic osteomyelitis. Grades 1 to 5 determine how the infection reacts to treatment such as oral or intravenous antibiotics, removal of pins and surgical curettage. The Checketts-Otterburns Grading System (Ghecketts 2000) grades infections from 1 to 6, where 1 represents slight redness/little discharge and 6 represents the presence of infection after removal of the fixator. Ward (1998) provided a simple classification NURSING…show more content…
The NAON recommended that patients and their families should be provided with education about pin site care before discharge and that this should be supported by the provision of written instructions (Holmes ei a/2005). Information should be available in written, oral and visual formats and should be consistent (Lee-Smith et al 2001 ). In terms of risk, if it is considered that the patient and/or carer is not able to achieve the required competency to care for the pin site, then healthcare professionals with particular responsibility for pin site care should liaise with community nurses to maintain consistency and provide support (Lee-Smith et al 2001 ). Nursing accountability Medical staff often indicate their preference for carrying out pin site care. Healthcare professionals may include the pin site care regimen in the patient's notes. Following surgery it is the nurse who invariably provides subsequent treatment for the patient and the nurse who is expected to follow the plan of care

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