Nursing needs its leaders to respond to Francis
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- Article: McIntyre L et al (2012) A strategy to reduce avoidable pressure ulcers. Nursing Times; 108: 29, 14-17.
Key points
- Safety Express is a national programme to minimise the four main avoidable harms in healthcare, one of which is pressure ulcers
- Treating pressure ulcers is costly and eliminating them could save the NHS over £150m a year
- Pressure ulcers are more likely to occur in patients who are elderly, malnourished, dehydrated, obese and/or with underlying medical conditions
- The NHS Safety Thermometer and serious incident reporting can be used to measure the incidence and prevalence of pressure ulcers
- Nurses have a role in monitoring the incidence of pressure ulcers
Let’s discuss
- What organisational factors contribute to pressure ulcer development in your clinical area? After reading this article how could you address these issues?
- What measures should be in place to ensure pressure ulcers are avoided? How would you explain and demonstrate these to a student nurse?
- How would you define an unavoidable pressure ulcer?
- The authors say that elimination of avoidable grade 2, 3, and 4 pressure ulcers can be used as an outcome measure for nursing care.
- Explain how essential care including; hydration, nutrition, medication management and personalized care reduces the risk of pressure ulcers.
From Putting it into practice
How do we put research into practice in the surgery or the hospital ward? Each week we’ll pick out a practice article and pose some topics for debate and you can pose your own questions too …Follow the weekly debates on twitter with #NTjournalclub
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