Point-of-Entry Nurses' Knowledge of Pressure Ulcer Prevention

Purpose:
The purpose of this interventional study is to learn point-of-entry nurses' knowledge of pressure ulcer prevention (PUP) and how that knowledge increases following PUP education.

Background/Significance:
Pressure ulcer incidence in acute care hospitals remains a prominent adverse event. Gone is reimbursement for care and treatment of hospital acquired pressure ulcers (HAPU). Hospitals have started to examine how patient care areas use PUP guidelines. Most nurses in emergency departments, same day surgery and interventional cardiology units, entry points, have not used PUP guidelines or received PUP education. Point-of-entry nurses' use of PUP guidelines could reduce HAPU.

Methods:
A pretest-posttest interventional study will be used to answer the questions. Point-of-entry RNs (Emergency Department, Surgical Pre-op Holding Area and Admmission Recovery Unit ) will receive the pre-survey . ED RNs will receive PUP education and a post-survey 30 days later. A 47-item Pressure Ulcer Knowledge Test (Pieper, 1995) will measure nursing demographics and PUP knowledge. Content validity has been established as appropriate, and reliability reported has 0.85-0.91 using coefficient alpha.

Results:
Non-parametric statistical analysis such as percentage, mean, standard deviation and ranges will be utilized. Data will be analyzed with the entire group as well as by split design in comparing the ED, SPHA and ARU nurses.

Conclusions and Implications for Practice:
Earlier recognition of pressure ulcer risk and implementation of pressure ulcer prevention treatment of the patient care continuum is possible by increasing point-of-entry nurses' knowledge of pressure ulcer prevention.