The effects of educational intervention on patient participation in pressure injury prevention: a pilot study
Abstract
Objective:
Patients' roles in reducing pressure injuries (PIs) are emphasised in clinical guidelines, although patients' preferences are undetermined. This study evaluated the effects of a pilot six-month educational intervention on patient participation in PI prevention.
Method:
A convenience sampling method was used to select patients admitted to medical-surgical wards at one of the teaching hospitals in Tabriz, Iran. This is a one-group pre-test and post-test interventional study, conducted via quasi-experimental design. Using a pamphlet, patients received education in preventing PIs. Data collected before and after intervention through a questionnaire were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics (McNemar and paired t-tests) in SPSS software (IBM Corp., US).
Results:
The study cohort consisted of 153 patients. Findings revealed that the knowledge of the patients about PIs, patients' ability to talk with the nurses, information received about PIs, and patients' ability to participate in decisions related to PI prevention had significantly increased following the intervention (p<0.001).
Conclusion:
Educating patients can improve their knowledge to enable them to participate in PI prevention. The findings of this study suggests further research is necessary on factors influencing patients' participation in such self-care behaviours.
Pressure injuries (PIs) or pressure ulcers (PUs) are common skin conditions in healthcare globally, and are considered a determinant of the quality of nursing services provided.1,2,3 A PI or PU are serious patient-safety threatening events,4 and the third most costly disorder after cancer and cardiovascular diseases.5 The prevalence rate of PIs is between 14–17% in the US,6 25.1% in Canada6 and 18.1–10.8%7 in European countries. Rates in Iran have been variously reported as 4%,8 8.9% in intensive care units,9 and 19.59% in a more recent study.10
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality affirmed that >2.5 million acute-care patients in the US develop hospital-acquired pressure injury (HAPI) every year.11
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