Evaluation of burn discharge teaching.

In order to facilitate excellent comprehensive burn care for patients discharged from our burn center, we instituted a study to determine the quality of our discharge teaching program. As a result of high census and high acuity levels, our burn center transfers patients with smaller burns to adult and pediatric surgical floors. Thus, nurses with less expertise in burn nursing techniques provide care to these patients. In an effort to evaluate the quality of discharge teaching provided to patients discharged from the Burn Intensive Care Unit (BICU), pediatric, and surgical step-down units, we developed a questionnaire to be completed at their first clinic visit. After consideration of these preliminary results, an education program was developed to improve discharge teaching techniques for nurses caring for burn patients in stepdown areas.