Optimizing Skin Integrity: Preventing and Treating Pressure Injuries

Date of Recording: May 2019

Pressure injuries are a frequent, costly, and potentially life-threatening complication of spinal cord injury (SCI). The etiology of pressure injuries is complex and multifactorial, and prevention strategies, such as hospital-based education, have little success in reducing the occurrence. This webinar will review a multitude of risk factors, the complexity of prevention, and the involvement of physical medicine and rehabilitation (PM&R) in the continuum of maintaining optimal skin integrity.

Learning Objectives: 

• Discuss the incidence, prevalence, and impact of pressure injury for those with a SCI.
• Recognize the risk factors of persons with a SCI who may develop pressure injuries.
• Review measures to prevent pressure injury and effectiveness.
• Identify PM&R team opportunities to assist in the management of stage 1 and 2 pressure injuries.
• Describe the collaborative care model and PM&R involvement for surgical management of stage 3 and 4 pressure injuries.

Presenter Biographies: 

Lisa A. Beck, M.S., APRN, CNS, CRRN is an assistant professor of nursing at The Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science. She is a board-certified clinical nurse specialist in the SCI program at Mayo Clinic Rochester with a focus on SCI clinical care, education, and research. She is a contributing author of Mayo Clinic Guide to Living with Spinal Cord Injury and the video Feeling Your Way: Relationships and Sexuality after Spinal Cord Injury. She has presented and published a variety of topics related to SCI. Ms. Beck is the past president of the Academy of Spinal Cord Injury Professionals (ASCIP), past president of the nursing section, and past secretary of the governance board for ASCIP. She is a member of the steering committee of the Consortium for Spinal Cord Medicine and a spinal cord specialty program surveyor for CARF.

Darcy R. Erickson, OTR/L, MAOL, ATP is an instructor in PM&R at The Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science. She has a B.A. in occupational therapy and an M.A. in organizational leadership and is credentialed as an assistive technology professional. She is a therapy supervisor of the SCI rehabilitation program at Mayo Clinic Rochester and a spinal cord specialty program surveyor for CARF.