A prospective, descriptive study to assess nursing staff perceptions of and interventions to prevent medical device-related pressure injury

Abstract

Nurses play an important role in identifying patients at risk for medical device-related (MDR) pressure injuries and preventing their occurrence. A prospective, descriptive study was conducted across 6 hospitals in Ankara, Turkey between December 2014 and June 2015 to assess nursing perceptions about and interventions used for the prevention of MDR pressure ulcers. A questionnaire was used to collect demographic information and data on experience with MDR pressure ulcers; in addition, participants completed a Nursing Interventions Form that included 10 statements regarding basic nursing interventions to prevent MDR pressure ulcers; answer options were I perform, I partly perform, I do not perform. of the 1555 nurses invited, 606 (38%) participated. Nurses who chose to volunteer completed the study instruments independently at their convenience; their responses were entered directly into the statistical analysis system by the researchers. Demographic and interventions data were analyzed using frequency and percentage distributions. Participant mean age was 30.0 +/- 6.83 years, most were women (86.9%), with a mean of 8.47 +/- 6.70 years of experience. Most had a bachelor's degree (55.1%), 38.2% worked in intensive care units, 50.2% participated in a scientific program regarding the prevention/treatment of pressure ulcers after their graduation, and 87.9% provided care to patients with pressure ulcers. A great majority (80.1%) of the nurses believed the use of medical devices can lead to pressure ulcers and 59.2% had experience with MDR pressure ulcers, but almost 20% did not believe medical devices can cause a pressure ulcer. The nurses identified 18 medical devices that posed the highest risk of causing MDR pressure ulcers; the 3 most commonly identified devices were endotracheal tubes (59.7%), tracheostomy ties (58.9%), and blood pressure cuffs (58.4%). The most common interventions used by these nurses included ensuring correct device positioning (87.9%) and loosening devices at least once every shift (80%) when medical conditions allowed. These findings suggest nurses may not be aware of the risk for pressure ulcers associated with a number of medical devices, indicating a need for comprehensive inservice training programs and research to identify optimal measures and methods to prevent MDR pressure ulcers.