Effie Upshaw

(l-r) Dr. Barbara Summers, CNO; Effie; Patty Johnston, Director of Clinical Nursing

Effie saw a need in the clinic; she noticed that there was an increased number of patients coming in with wound vacs.  The WOCN was inundated and busy most of the time and Effie wanted to lend a helping hand in any way to expeditiously take care of the patients.  She asked the WOC nurse to teach her about wound vacs, details on how to change the dressing, operate the machine, and manage wound healing.  The WOCN taught her how to use the wound vac and change the dressings which allowed Effie to fully take care of her patients and this also freed up the WOC nurse to take care of other patients in the institution in a timely manner.

Effie has also gone out of her way in the past and arranged for a patient to come to the center to get his wound vac dressing changed by her.  The patient had spent thousands of dollars out of pocket and his insurance would not fully cover his home health visits to get his wound vac dressing changed three times a week. Effie worked with the business center to see what could be done to help the patient with expenses.   She eliminated one of the home health visits to save the patient money on home health visits by doing one dressing change during the week; it was more cost effective for the patient to have the dressing completed in the center.  Effie also created an IPOCTR for the documentation of wound VAC therapy teaching and it was available for use starting 09/30/2010.  Effie presented the wound vac competency to the Competency Pact on 02/22/11 for approval.  The competency was approved with minor changes and will serve as a skills check off for surgery nurses. Effie will assist the nurse educator in getting the nurses checked off for this competency.  Effie saw a need and jumped in single handedly to improve the quality of care for our patients as well as the enhancement of education for our staff.