Nurses' Knowledge and Attitudes towards Prevention of Pressure Ulcers.

Beáta Grešš Halász,Ľubomíra Lizáková,Dagmar Magurová,Anna Bérešová,Ľubomíra Tkáčová

doi:10.3390/ijerph18041705

Beáta Grešš Halász, Ľubomíra Lizáková + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18041705

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Abstract

Background: Pressure ulcers (PU) remain a serious complication of immobile patients and a burden for healthcare professionals. The incidence and prevalence remain alarming. Knowledge and attitudes of nurses play a fundamental role in prevention. The aim of this study was to determine the knowledge and attitudes of nurses towards the prevention of PU in selected Slovak hospitals and find relationships and differences among selected variables. Methods: A quantitative exploratory cross-sectional design was chosen. Validated instruments were used. From the 460 randomly selected nurses, 225 (49%) participated in this research. Results: Results showed insufficient knowledge (45.5%) and attitudes (67.9%) of nurses towards PU prevention. There was a significant positive correlation found between the knowledge and attitudes (ρ = 0.300; p = 0.000). Nurses´ knowledge was significantly different within the level of education (p = 0.031) and work department (p = 0.048). Conclusions: Results showed insufficiencies in the knowledge and attitudes of nurses towards PU prevention. Therefore, it is essential to focus on general education and continuing education and practice of nurses. Further development of educational programs and frequent measurement of these two parameters can lead to a significant improvement in the quality of care provided.

Highlights

Pressure ulcers are painful burden for patients/clients of all ages, which causes complications as comfort, pain, quality of life, costs and a long stay in hospitals
The cost of pressure ulcer prevention varies between 2.65€ to 87.57€ a day per patient while the cost of pressure ulcer treatment ranged between 1.71€ to 470.49€ a day per patient [9]
Our research review issues related to nursesknowledge and attitudes towards management of pressure ulcers offers an insight to a condition in four major Eastern Slovak hospitals and compares the results with other countries

Summary

Introduction

Pressure ulcers are painful burden for patients/clients of all ages, which causes complications as comfort, pain, quality of life, costs and a long stay in hospitals. They might result in a life-threatening situation. The issue of pressure ulcer incidence is very complex. It includes regulations and auditing, implementation of adequate preventive and treatment procedures, resources, evidence-based practice, educated staff and active involvement of professionals. Despite progressive technologies and successful clinical researches in terms of prevention and treatment, pressure ulcers present high incidence of 7–71.6% [1,2,3,4], prevalence of 8.8–53.2% [5,6,7], and considerably high mortality [8]. The cost of pressure ulcer prevention varies between 2.65€ to 87.57€ a day per patient while the cost of pressure ulcer treatment ranged between 1.71€ to 470.49€ a day per patient [9]

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