A pressure ulcer prevention programme specially designed for nursing homes: does it work?

AIM: The aim of this study was to evaluate a pressure ulcer prevention programme for nursing homes to ascertain the feasibility of its implementation, impact on care staff and outcomes for pressure ulcer knowledge and skills and pressure ulcer reduction. BACKGROUND: No pressure ulcer prevention protocol for long-term care settings has been established to date. The first author of this study thus developed a pressure ulcer prevention programme for nursing homes. DESIGN: A quasi-experimental pretest and post-test design was adopted. METHODS: Forty-one non-licensed care providers and eleven nurses from a government-subsidised nursing home voluntarily participated in the study. Knowledge and skills of the non-licensed care providers were assessed before, immediately after and six weeks after the training course, and pressure ulcer prevalence and incidence were recorded before and during the protocol implementation. At the end of the programme implementation, focus group interviews with the subjects were conducted to explore their views on the programme. RESULTS: A statistically significant improvement in knowledge and skills scores amongst non-licensed care providers was noted. Pressure ulcer prevalence and incidence rates dropped from 9-2·5% and 2·5-0·8%, respectively, after programme implementation. The focus group findings indicated that the programme enhanced the motivation of non-licensed care providers to improve their performance of pressure ulcer prevention care and increased communication and cooperation amongst care staff, but use of the modified Braden scale was considered by nurses to increase their workload. CONCLUSION: A pressure ulcer prevention programme for nursing homes, which was feasible and acceptable, with positive impact and outcome in a nursing home was empirically developed. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: The study findings can be employed to modify the programme and its outcomes for an evaluation of effectiveness of the programme through a randomised controlled trial.