Pressure ulcer prevention: education for nursing home staff

This article describes an education programme for a group of nurses working in several nursing homes located in different areas of the Midlands but each belonging to the same care group. The group's management team had identified that there were patients in the nursing homes who had severe pressure ulcers and that staff were not managing their care adequately in order for healing to occur. It has been identified that 'education is probably the single most effective way of reducing the incidence of pressure ulcers' (Department of Health (DoH), 1993). Although the various nursing homes were able to access the skills of clinical nurse specialists in tissue viability, severe pressure ulcers were failing to heal and nursing home staff requested additional education to help them address this problem. Nurses in the homes expressed a desire to gain a deeper knowledge of the problem, so they would be able to plan and implement appropriate care autonomously and thus raise the standard of pressure ulcer care provided in each home. This article discusses the implementation of a comprehensive education programme that contributed to raising the standards of patient care and to the professional self-worth of the nurses involved.