<p>An interprofessional approach to pressure ulcer prevention: a knowledge and attitudes evaluation</p>

Abstract

Background: Pressure ulcers (PUs) are a major burden to individuals, impacting their physical, mental and social wellbeing. While PU prevention is traditionally regarded as a nursing issue, an interprofessional approach has been promoted as best practice. However, little is known about current practice or the knowledge and attitudes of the wider interprofessional team (IPT). Purpose: Pre-designed questionnaires were used to explore knowledge and attitudes with healthcare staff in the community. Methods: Questionnaires were disseminated to all healthcare staff within a community healthcare Trust predominantly via an online tool. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Results: The median values of all professional groups demonstrated satisfactory attitudes (>75%) and levels of knowledge (>60%) to PU prevention. However, there were differences within and between groups. Management staff demonstrated the most positive attitude to PU prevention (89%), followed by occupational therapists (OTs) and healthcare assistants (HCAs) (87%, IQR: 75%→89%). OTs demonstrated the highest scores for knowledge (69%, IQR: 62%→73%), while healthcare and rehabilitation assistants scored the lowest (58%, IQR: 58%-64%). Conclusion: This study has demonstrated that the majority of healthcare staff in a UK community setting have satisfactory levels of knowledge and attitudes in relation to PU prevention overall. Nevertheless, there were some differences between groups, albeit non-significant. There were also differences between sub-themes of the questionnaires, indicating a greater focus of pressure ulcer treatment over prevention. While PU prevention is widely regarded to be a nursing issue, these findings provide some indication of the potential for an interprofessional approach.

Attitudes of Spanish Nurses towards Pressure Injury Prevention and Psychometric Characteristics of the Spanish Version of the APuP Instrument

“…The attitude towards PI prevention in our population of nurses at the University Hospital of Jaén can be considered as positive because it is higher than the 75% of the maximum score in APuP [ 16 ]. These results agree with recent studies in nurses [ 39 , 40 ]; however, other authors described a less positive attitude (74.6%) in operating room nurses [ 32 ]. An item of the Impact factor (namely, “A pressure ulcer almost never causes discomfort for a patient”) obtained the highest score (3.69), which is consistent with the findings of other studies [ 21 , 32 , 37 , 41 , 42 ].…”

“…Some studies in European countries, such as Sweden, Finland and the UK, found high scores on the factor Priority for PI prevention, which means that nurses consider it important to apply preventive measures in daily care. However, they scored low on Confidence in the effectiveness of prevention [ 40 , 41 ].…”

Patient expectations of pressure ulcer prevention in the NHS, healthcare demands and national policy: a critical commentary

“…Workforce issues have also been identified in the context of PU prevention within primary studies of community nursing staff working in the NHS (Cross et al 2016, Clarkson et al 2019. Specifically, these studies identified poor interprofessional collaboration and limited education were identified as potential barriers to effective PU prevention.…”

Application of the educational method of realistic simulation in the treatment of pressure injuries

“…Assessing the knowledge and attitudes of the professionals in their practice contributes to determining educational priorities and to the development of specific interventions within health institutions ( 24 , 27 ) .…”