Nurses' knowledge and practice of pressure ulcer prevention and treatment: An observational study.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To assess nurses' knowledge on pressure ulcer (PU) prevention and treatment in Jordan, and the frequency of and factors influencing nurses' implementation of PU prevention and treatment interventions. BACKGROUND: Highly educated and experienced nurses can provide effective PU care; however, previous studies highlighted poor knowledge and implementation of PU care. DESIGN: A correlational study examining nurses' knowledge of PU prevention and frequency of PU preventive actions in Jordanian hospitals. METHODS: Participants were 377 nurses and 318 patients from 11 hospitals. Data were collected to quantify the frequency of nurses' implementation of pressure ulcer prevention and treatment interventions for patients suffering from PUs and/or at risk of PU development using a self-reported cross-sectional survey and prospective 8-h observation. RESULTS: For observed PU prevention while type of hospital and number of beds in units were significant it is not known without further work if this is replicable. For observed PU treatment, linear regression analysis revealed significant negative beta values for more than 50 beds in clinical unit (ß = -2.49). CONCLUSION: The study addressed new factors, facilitating the provision of prevention and treatment strategies to PU development, including type of clinical institution and number of beds in clinical unit. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: There is a need to develop training programmes to improve insufficient nurses' knowledge and, thus, clinical practices on PU prevention and treatment. These programmes would assist both junior and senior nurses and other key stakeholders (e.g. hospital managers, policy-makers, and educators) to improve the performance of PU services, thus, minimising patient suffering.