The team presented
its findings at the
annual meeting
of the Society of
Pediatric Nurses in
April 2013 and the
America Epilepsy
Society (AES),
an international
conference, in
December.The
poster presentation,
titled “Preventing
Skin Breakdown
in EEG Patients,”
received a nursing
award at the AES
conference.The
team also presented
the findings to the
67th annual meeting
of the American
Epilepsy Society in
December 2013.
To further prevent pressure ulcers, the team recommended
that staff double the number of times they visually assessed a
patient’s skin during a shift. Instead of making only one visual
assessment, nurses would do so twice during each shift.
“It’s hard to see beneath electrodes, but we
take our time when making a visual assessment,”
Mullen said. “If children complain of itching, we
give them an anti-inflammatory. When we do see
redness, we alert the physician. Most often it’s at
the end of a study, and the physician will opt to
cut the test short.”
Finally, the team recommended that technicians no longer
wrap children’s scalps once the electrodes are in place.
This allows the scalp to remain open to the air and relieves
pressure on the skin. In the younger patients who can’t resist
touching the leads, the team found a product to replace the
gauze. The product is pliable and even more breathable, giving
the skin access to oxygen.
Mullen and her team began implementing changes to the
epilepsy monitoring process in late 2012. Within a year, the
incidence of pressure ulcers in that unit declined from 10
percent to zero.
“Just because something’s always been
done a cer tain way doesn’t mean it
can’t be improved,”
Mullen said.
“Changes to the way we conduct
epilepsy monitoring are proof of that.”
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