In the past eight weeks, I have evaluated that the high incidence of pressure ulcers among people living in assisted facilities is a significant concern. There are various interventions to reduce pressure ulcers, but most nurses lack the knowledge and awareness to implement such interventions. Therefore, the proposed practice is to implement an educational program to improve knowledge and awareness among nurses on pressure ulcer prevention techniques. However, such change cannot take place in a silo. A change must have a leader and champion to initiate, lead and support the change. Even though change champions and opinion leaders are different, they play a crucial role in supporting the implementation of change. According to Bonawitz et al. (2020), change champions have long been regarded as critical facilitators for successful change efforts in healthcare. By description, change champions refer to a person who volunteers to lead the change. An example of a change champion is a nurse staff implementing an education program to enlighten nurses on pressure ulcer prevention techniques. A change champion comes from within the organization and can quickly build organizational support, coalition, and support for new practices. Change champion identifies the gap and inefficiency in the healthcare system and secures the needed resources to bridge the gap. Change champion has a better understanding of the change and the context to facilitate more successful efforts for change. A change champion also brings forward change and ensures that services continuously improve and work towards a better standard, benefiting both the health service and its users. When it comes to opinion leaders, these are people with strong influence, reliable, and trusted by others. Opinion leaders do not identify the practice gap and do not mobilize resources like change champions. Instead, opinion leaders have mastered specific industries such as healthcare and have created a trust that enables them to influence their audience (Raymond et al., 2018). The opinion leader can be people who directly contact the community members (Raymond et al., 2018). Examples of opinion leaders are leaders of women groups, elders, chiefs, and assembly members. The opinion leaders are trusted resources to help give insight when needed and, therefore, can influence the behavior to inspire a particular response or action. Finally, the success of the above-proposed practice change in implementing a training program to enhance knowledge and awareness of pressure ulcer prevention depends on human resources. Human resources are needed to implement the training program, manage variable shifts and implement policies that support pressure ulcer prevention in assisted facility living (Al-Abbadi, 2018). Human resources are needed to facilitate the learning and development of the employee’s pressure ulcer prevention techniques. HR and nurse managers can advise different development plans required to support the proposed practice change (Al-Abbadi, 2018).
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