Prevention of Hospital Acquired Pressure Ulcers

For this assignment please respond intelligently and concisely to the following post: As a future leader in the nursing field there are always going to be areas of improvement. Evidence-based practice research is the key to providing the most up to date information for improvement within a company. The first step to improvement is recognizing a problem. For example problem recognization can happen through QI data or employee recognition of an ongoing issue. It is essential to listen to your employees and closely evaluate QI data to support for a company change. Once you have identified an issue within an organization, much time should be dedicated to evaluating literature for the implementation of new processes. There need to be a plethora of information on the proposed topic of change. A few steps are listed in the Advanced Nursing Research: From Theory to Practice textbook that I believe would be beneficial for critiquing literature for future practice. The first step would be to determine the credibility of the sources you are reading. Determining the reputation of the author/organization of the piece of literature is important. Also, looking for peer reviewed articles can increase the credibility of the piece of literature. When going through the stacks of literature reviewed, a term called sorting can help organize the process. Sorting refers to acknowledging what pieces of material are relevant and what information can be left behind in the process. This will organize your research and provide information stacks based on the type of study. For example, sorting qualitative versus quantitative articles. When sorting through these articles, make sure to thoroughly read the articles and take detailed notes of the material assessed. After all of the articles have been read, the last step should be to write a review of the material. This review will provide the guidance needed for which direction the company needs to go in to provide the change (Tappen, 2016). I do not believe in stagnation. The idea of we have always done it that way does not provide the best environment to the employees and patients alike. As a future leader in the hospital environment, I would like to embed evidence-based practice into the environment. Encourage employees to be a part of the change. As employee involvement will be the catalyst for acceptance of change within a company.Prevention of Hospital Acquired Pressure Ulcers

HAPUs are preventable localized skin injuries that can advance to severe forms. It is associated with a prolonged hospital stay. Globally, the incidence of HAPU ranges between 1.8-14%. Countries with a developed health system have reduced incidence of HAPUs. HAPUs gradually progresses from minor skin injuries that are easily manageable to chronic wounds that predispose patients to death. Risk factors to this condition are divided into two; hospital and patient factors. Patient factors include reduced mobility, advancing age, low nutritional status, and compounding comorbidities. On the other hand, hospital factors include the nature of health care and the care provider’s role (Kim et al., 2019). This paper focuses on HAPU as a health concern for quality improvement.

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Risk Factors to HAPU

Patient factors are several; however, the most significant factors include limited mobility, advancing age and compounding comorbidities. According to Kim et al. (2019), the high prevalence of HAPU among ICU patients was associated with reduced activity and severe illness. In other health care settings, patients who developed HAPUs were either having a prolonged stay and had reduced mobility or did not receive adequate health care. Therefore, nurses should assess patients’ susceptibility to acquiring pressure ulcers and intervene appropriately. However, several studies identify that nurses’ shortage is the leading cause of poor patient outcomes, including pressure ulcers, the injury falls, infections and other safety indicators. In environments where staffing is adequate, the risk for pressure ulcer is low. According to Deng et al. (2017), addressing issues in nursing staffing can help reduce the risk of pressure ulcers regardless of patient factors. An extra hour of patient care by a nurse reduced the risk of getting pressure ulcer by more than 80%. Prevention of Hospital Acquired Pressure Ulcers

Conclusion

HAPU is a patient outcome that directly determines the quality of patient care. Several factors are associated with this concern; however, nursing interventions play a significant role in reducing the risk for this condition among hospitalized patients. In health care settings where staffing is a major concern, there is a high incidence for developing HAPU. This indicates that the achievement of quality improvement in this particular concern requires adequate staffing to promote effective and efficient care.

References

Deng, X., Yu, T., & Hu, A. (2017). Predicting the risk for hospital-acquired pressure ulcers in critical care patients. Critical care nurse, 37(4), e1-e11.

Kim, J., Lee, J. Y., & Lee, E. (2019). Risk factors for newly acquired pressure ulcer and the impact of nurse staffing on pressure ulcer incidence. Journal of nursing management.Prevention of Hospital Acquired Pressure Ulcers