Nurses who developed a procedure to treat and prevent pressure wounds in patients at the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital will see their work published in a British journal on geriatric medicine.

The method was shared already with hundreds of people at a conference last month.

A spokeswoman for the Bermuda Hospitals Board said the abstract, A Novel Pressure Injury Care Bundle for Dependent Patients with Pressure Injuries in Bermuda, detailed a nurse-driven programme from the Gordon Long Term Care Unit.

It was presented at a British Geriatrics Society conference on November 17 by the unit’s quality and safety team, which included registered nurses Girlie Baldonado, Jerry De La Cruz, Bernadette Diaz and Bernadine Edwards as well as long term care clinical educator Katrina Drummond and Maxine Simmons, the Gordon unit clinical manager.

The procedure will be featured in the society’s Age and Ageing journal in the coming months.

Ms Simmons said: “Our unit-based quality and safety team – all nurses – developed a procedure to help us better manage pressure injuries and prevent our patients developing them.

“These are wounds that occur on the skin as a result of sustained pressure. When pressure cuts off the oxygen supply to a particular area, an ulcer or wound can appear.

“Long-term care residents, especially those who are confined to bed, are more susceptible to developing pressure injuries.”

A specific set of actions was created by the team to enhance the management system that was already in place.

Mr De La Cruz spoke at the virtual conference, which included more than 700 professionals in the field of geriatrics from around the world.

A BHB spokeswoman explained: “His video presentation detailed the project and documented how the majority of pressure injuries, even in severe cases, healed significantly.

“The wounds healed completely in half of the cases.”

Mr De La Cruz said: “We looked at 30 patients who were admitted to the unit in this study.”

Ms Simmons added: “The results of introducing this pressure injury bundle have been very encouraging for all of us carers on the unit.

“We worked hard looking at actions we felt would address the problem, and I can’t describe the gratification in seeing that it has worked.”

Judy Richardson, the hospitals board’s Chief of Nursing, said: “Providing patient-centred care, where we focus on the needs of the patient first, is a BHB value which our Gordon unit nurses exemplified when they developed this care plan.

“BHB is proud of their work.

“The British Geriatrics Society publishing it in their journal gives international recognition of its importance.”