Bad to the Bone, Rotten to the Core: Pressure Ulcers

Lesson Content

• Lesson Plan Template:

  CTE Lesson Plan

• CTE Course Info and Benchmark Notes

  
  

  Program Title (as applicable): Medical Skills and Services

  Course Title: Medical Skills and Services

  Course Number: 8400320

  Career Cluster: Health Sciences

  CIP Number: 03179997PA

  Course Type: Non-career preparatory

  Standard(s) or benchmarks:

  Focus:

  • 04.05 Demonstrate how to prevent accidents, injuries and infection in accordance with OSHA standards.

  Supporting:

  • 04.03 Perform proper body mechanics to prevent injury to patients and self.
  • 05.01 Describe wounds and the appropriate first aid treatment.

• Unit Outline

  
  

  Teach this lesson after completing prior lessons about body mechanics, lifting an object, assisting a patient to a sitting position in bed, assisting a patient to move to the side of the bed, assisting a patient to move up the bed, and assisting a patient to turn in bed.

• Career Connection

  
  

  In this lesson, students will apply nursing assistant skills, such as using proper body mechanics to lift heavy objects when repositioning patients to avoid injury to patients and to self. They will also demonstrate the importance of preventing common injuries and infections among bed-ridden patients.

• Learning Objectives

  
  

  Students will be able to:

  • Demonstrate how pressure ulcers can be identified and prevented.
  • Describe how to position a patient in bed using proper body mechanics.
  • Use models to simulate and identify the four stages of pressure ulcers in patients.

• Prior Knowledge

  
  

  Students should be familiar with/able to:

  • Explain the importance of preventing injury and infection among patients and self.
  • Assist a patient to reposition in bed.
  • Describe the use of models in the medical field.

• Guiding Questions

  
  
  • What are the stages of bed sores?
  • Predict the outcome of lying in one position for an extended time. What could happen to the body? Explain.
  • What causes a nursing assistant to position patients improperly in a hospital bed?
  • How can models help us identify the importance of repositioning patients in their bed?

• Procedure

  
  
  1. See Teacher Notes for classroom setup prior to implementing this lesson.
  2. To introduce the lesson, review previous lessons about proper body mechanics and allow students time to practice lifting light-, medium-, and heavyweight objects properly in your classroom. Teach students that they need to lift various objects properly to avoid injury to themselves and to patients, and to identify the most common locations of pressure ulcers on the human body.
     • For best results, have students dress comfortably in compliance with your school’s dress code.
     • Use the attached Medical Skills Checklist for students to identify and practice proper body mechanics when lifting a patient.
  3. Review the characteristics of normal human skin, and then review skin lesions, lacerations, abrasions, or diseases, such as eczema, psoriasis, etc. (see Teacher notes). Finally, explain that some pressure ulcers occur from the lack of properly turning and/or moving patients; this is why repositioning patients periodically is so important.
     • Discuss the most common places for patients to develop pressure ulcers (back of head, shoulder blades, buttocks/hips, back/sides of knee, heels) and ask students to think about why these places are more vulnerable to pressure ulcers.
     • If pressure ulcers are not properly identified and treated, they can lead to infection.
  4. Explain that pressure ulcers can typically be divided into 4 stages, which students can read about in their stations worksheet. Pass out the stations worksheet and go over the descriptions of the stages of pressure ulcers as a class. 4. Next, students will visit a series of stations in which fruit is used to model patients who may or may not exhibit signs of pressure ulcers.
     • 4-5 stations will be set up with fruit or images of fruit to model patients. Some examples of fruit will model pressure ulcers as noted in the students’ handout. See special materials for details.
     • At each station, students will describe the characteristics of the fruit and identify examples of potential pressure ulcers as modeled by the fruit. They will use the stages of pressure ulcers described in their handout to identify which stage is best modeled by that piece of fruit and provide their reasoning.
  5. To close the lesson, review students' responses to the station activity. Have students share their conclusions for each station and provide their reasoning. Ask students to reflect using questions like:
     • “How can we identify patients who may be developing pressure ulcers?”
     • “What can be done to help prevent pressure ulcers among patients?”
     • “Why is it important to use proper body mechanics when helping patients reposition in their bed?”
     • "How did using fruit as a model help us to simulate patients with pressure ulcers?"

• Teacher Notes

  
  
  • Prior to this lesson, setup four to five different stations in the classroom, each containing a piece of fruit or photo of fruit with features that can be used to simulate various stages of pressure ulcers. See Special Materials for details.
    • Do not label which pieces of fruit are meant to model pressure ulcers or which stages are represented to allow students to come to their own conclusions and support them with reasoning.
  • It may be helpful to provide images of normal human skin, skin with lesions, abrasions, lacerations, or diseases such as eczema or psoriasis for students to visually see the different characteristics.
  • More information on pressure ulcers can be found at https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/bedsores.

• Optional

  
  

  Formative Assessment Idea:

  • Use peer evaluations to assess students’ understanding of injury prevention.

  Summative Assessment Ideas:

  • Give a post-test or assign a PowerPoint project to assess students’ understanding of the stages of pressure ulcers.