BACKGROUND Hospital-acquired pressure ulcers are a common problem. Although a number of risk factors have been identified, relationships among risk profile characteristics and pressure ulcer outcomes have not been described in hospitalized patients. OBJECTIVES To describe patients' characteristics and risk factors associated with pressure ulcer outcome. METHODS A retrospective chart review ...

BACKGROUND Critically ill patients are at increased risk for pressure ulcers, which increase patients' morbidity and mortality. Quality improvement projects decrease the frequency of pressure ulcers. OBJECTIVES To improve patients' outcomes by reducing the prevalence of pressure ulcers, identifying areas for improvement in prevention of pressure ulcers, and increasing the adoption of preventi...

BACKGROUND Although the recently developed Pressure Ulcer Scale for Healing (PUSH) was created to monitor healing over time, prospective evidence of its validity in measuring healing is lacking. The purpose of this study was to assess the validity of PUSH (version 3.0) when used to assess pressure ulcers in clinical practice. METHODS The authors chose a prospective research design using a con...

Background Critically ill patients are at increased risk for pressure ulcers, which increase patients’ morbidity and mortality. Quality improvement projects decrease the frequency of pressure ulcers. Objectives To improve patients’ outcomes by reducing the prevalence of pressure ulcers, identifying areas for improvement in prevention of pressure ulcers, and increasing the adoption of preventive...

BACKGROUND studies of the effectiveness of alternating pressure air mattresses (APAMs) for the prevention of pressure ulcers are scarce and in conflict. OBJECTIVE evaluating whether an APAM is more or equally effective as the standard prevention. DESIGN randomised controlled trial. SETTING AND SUBJECTS patients admitted to 19 surgical, internal, or geriatric wards in seven Belgian hospita...

BACKGROUND Due to improved care, more and more children born with spina bifida in rural Kenya are surviving into adulthood. This improved survival has led to significant challenges in their lifestyles, especially the need to ensure pressure ulcer prevention and treatment. Malignant degeneration of pressure ulcers in spina bifida patients is very rare. The author describes the clinical presentat...

A criterion-referenced Web-based test was designed and administered to 256 individuals at 48 randomly sampled National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators (NDNQI) member hospitals to determine the reliability of the NDNQI pressure ulcer indicator. Overall κ values for pressure ulcer identification, staging, and sourcing indicate moderate to near perfect reliability. Findings suggest that nur...

Pressure ulcers are a common problem, with about 1.5 to 3 million individuals in the United Stated affected. Treatment may be costly, requiring lengthy periods of hospitalization. Central to the development of pressure ulcers is the loss of the ability of bedridden patients to move spontaneously. When this ability is impaired by neurologic injury or debility, damage caused by unrelieved pressur...

BACKGROUND Many classification systems for grading pressure ulcers are discussed in the literature. Correct identification and classification of a pressure ulcer is important for accurate reporting of the magnitude of the problem, and for timely prevention. The reliability of pressure ulcer classification systems has rarely been tested. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES The purpose of this paper is to exam...

BACKGROUND Implementation of the ruling on the Inpatient Prospective Payment System by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid has challenged nurses to focus on the prevention of pressure ulcers. Despite years of research, pressure ulcers are still one of the most common complications experienced by patients in health care facilities. OBJECTIVE To examine the relationship between patients' char...