Nurses' Knowledge and Practices Related to Pressure Injury: A Cross-sectional Study.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine nurses' knowledge and practices regarding pressure injury and identify relationships between these factors and professional nurse characteristics. Cross-sectional, descriptive study. The sample comprised 347 nurses attending the 2013 and 2015 Wound Management Congresses. The meetings were organized by the Wound Management Association located in Antalya, Turkey. A 35-item data collection form was designed for purposes of this study. It divided into 2 parts: 8 items queried demographic and professional characteristics of nurse respondents. The second part comprised 9 cases describing patients with pressure injury; these cases were associated with 27 items querying pressure injury-related knowledge and practices. Demographic and professional characteristics of nurse respondents were summarized via descriptive statistics. The Kruskal-Wallis H and Mann-Whitney U tests were used to identify relationships between nurse characteristics and pressure injury knowledge and practices. The mean score for the 27 items related to pressure injury knowledge and practices was 57.37 ± 14.26 out of 100 points. Pressure injury knowledge and practices were positively associated with nurses having a bachelor's and/or postgraduate degree (P = .012), nurses caring for a higher number of patients with pressure injuries per week (P = .042), nurses practicing in intensive care units and wound care clinics (P = .011), nurses with specific education in pressure injury (P = .000), and those indicating adequate skills and knowledge in pressure injury (P = .005). Nurses' knowledge and practices regarding pressure injuries were lower than anticipated in this sample. We recommend additional education and training activities to increase nurses' knowledge and practices related to pressure injury.