INTRODUCTION

The poster is a follow-up to the initial home phototherapy project presented in a poster at the 27th DNA 2008. The poster will demonstrate the progress in the development of the clinical pathway, the first step of the pathway-the telephone advise record.

Our objective is to demonstrate how a specific photobiology telephone assessment/documentation record will monitor patient concerns with home phototherapy, as well providing reassurance and follow-up visits as required.

METHODS

The development of the previous abstract based on patient surveys and a published article by a unit physician showed the need for a clinical pathway as a guideline toward educating the patients about their disease and their goals toward the use of home phototherapy. Step 1: Create a photobiology-specific telephone advice record. Trial the document and, using a follow-up survey, compile our results, assessing patient satisfaction.

RESULTS

The development of the telephone assessment/documentation record as the first step in the clinical pathway. Effectiveness will be shown through postsurvey results.

CONCLUSION

The development and use of an area-specific telephone assessment/documentation record provides important patient data to the photobiology nurses and physicians on our community patients. The tool decreases nursing time by use of tick boxes as opposed to using the generic hospital form which is in the narrative format.

NURSING IMPLICATIONS

The tool is time efficient and unit specific allowing the nurse to

- capture data related to patients dermatological problems

- decrease nursing time by use of short answer and a tick box system

- decrease transcription time as the form is in both official languages (English/French) and a chart record

- provide a quick reference on the home phototherapy patients' progress.

REFERENCES