Evidence Based Information on Pressure Ulcers

NURS 4000 5/ NURS-4001-5 Res/ Scholarship Evid-Based Practice

Pressure Ulcers are very serious, but common occurrences in healthcare in our older patients today. Millions of dollars are spent daily to prevent this occurrence. The purpose of this paper is to educate on the evidence based nursing practice surrounding pressure ulcers.

Practice Setting Problem
Pressure Ulcer is a breakdown of skin appears on the skin over a very thin or bony prominence where circulation is impaired. (Physical Examination &Health Assessment, p. 236). Usually occurs when a patient adult or child is confined for long periods of time to a bed, or is immobilized.

If blood flow is hindered to areas of the body it prevents the delivery of blood carrying oxygen and nutrients to those bony areas causing ischemia and cell death. Common sites for pressure ulcers are sacrum, heel of the foot, elbow, hip, shoulder, ankle and vertebra.

Risk factors that influence pressure ulcers are fragile skin, age, impaired mobility, a decrease in sensory perceptions, poor nutrition and incontinence. Incidence rate vary considerably by clinical setting from up to 38% in acute care and up to 23.9% in long term care to up to 17% in home care.( Lyder CH. Pressure ulcer prevention and management. JAMA.)

Importance of the clinical problem and its significance to nursing practice

As Nurses one of our goals is patient safety, when it comes to pressure ulcers the goal is prevention for a nurse. We do this by collaborating with other disciplines to identify best evidence- base practice and implementation for a positive outcome for our patients. We should primarily place the focus on this information will be done by upon patient admission on the risk assessment (Braden Scale) for predicting pressure sore risk. When collaboration is done and evidence research is presented the…

Evidence Based Information on Pressure Ulcers