Work in progress — A smartphone application as a teaching tool in undergraduate nursing education

One in four people in a healthcare facility has a pressure ulcer (bedsore) at any given time, and bedsores are one of the leading iatrogenic causes of death reported in developed countries. Standardized documentation is identified as a critical component in the prevention and treatment of pressure ulcers, with the greatest challenges being non-compliance to protocol and inconsistency of documentation. As a result, attention is focused on electronic information systems, and the research objective in this work was to develop an interactive software application on a mobile device (Smartphone; tablet) to allow healthcare workers to electronically document patients' wounds, and to explore whether the application may promote higher consistency and compliance in wound care documentation, and higher patient and caregiver satisfaction relative to paper-based documentation. A prototype application on an Android platform is in progress with additional intelligence over paper-based forms. The prototype is being extended to a version designed as an educational tool for undergraduate nursing students learning clinical practices in wound care. The work advances the emerging area of healthcare applications and supports the increasing prevalence of e-health in nursing practice.