WOCTok: A Video-focused Slam Dunk to Engage Frontline Staff in Wound Care Issues

Lisa Zacchei Hill ’88 BSN, MSN, RN, CWOCN knew she had to do something. As Regional Director of the Wound Healing Centers in her Philadelphia-area organization, two months before the COVID-19 pandemic, she saw that the current staff education program would not work. Not only is the world of wound, ostomy and continence (WOC) care constantly changing, but there are other confounding factors of limited time, staff fatigue, staffing shortages, as well as disinterest during a pandemic. How could she educate creatively?

Hill saw her children and their friends interact on social media, and, in the spirit of the wildly popular, video-driven social media platform TikToK, WOCTok was born. “Facilitating, creating, developing and producing clever educational short-form videos, my WOC team and I transfer knowledge (Tok is an acronym for Transfer of knowledge) to our hospital staff in less than 3 minutes and increase awareness of guidelines and skin integrity issues,” she says.

“I knew we could engage our nurses better,” Hill explains, “The WOCTok series was created to transform our team’s process, product and audience for wound, ostomy and continence education, ultimately engaging clinicians with technology and storytelling. The objective of a WOCTok is to provide easily accessible education on WOC issues that ignite conversation, an approach that would be valued, she reasoned, by her Millennial and Generation Z nursing audience.

To create “impactful teaching moments,” Hill, a resident of Blue Bell, Pa., works each month with her team to:

·       Review data and reasons for consults to identify trends or issues,

·       Select a topic based on an issue, inquiry or guideline,

·       Develop a script, recruit “actors,” film a story and produce a video,

·       Publish and distribute a synopsis of the WOCTok and video link within a newsletter to all employees,

·       Publish the WOCTok on the system’s SafeTv intranet, and

·       Email the WOCTok link to nursing leadership to view during staff meetings and huddles.

About outcomes, Hill says, “Changing the process, product and audience of our education has encouraged conversation about wounds among critical care, medical-surgical, operating room, home care, and outpatient nurses, as well as nursing students, dietary, rehab medicine and surgery.” Topics covered include skin assessment, ostomy management, incontinence management, diabetic foot ulcer management, nutrition and wound healing, skin tear care, wound photography, guideline updates, skin and COVID changes and OR and pressure injuries.

With this new approach, a wider array of professionals are engaged. All of her team members have participated in WOCToks. Preceptors use these videos during unit orientation and the Department of Nursing shows some during nursing orientation.

Hill points out the process has improved since the first video. Videos are generally 1 minute now, and the Skin and Wound Council members help pick the topics. Surgeons, dietitians, OR staff, transport team members, outpatient wound nurses, home care WOC nurses and staff nurses have all participated. She has recently submitted this project for a poster presentation.

“WOCToks have fostered a lighthearted community approach to transferring wound, ostomy and continence knowledge to our staff in minutes,” Hill reflects, and in keeping with the basketball theme of the contest, notes, “I prevented making a personal foul holding on to an old program and instead engaged my team to assist me in making a slam dunk in changing the way we educate staff on skin integrity issues.”