Nurses' knowledge of pressure ulcer prevention in ogun state, Nigeria: results of a pilot survey 

Pressure ulcer (PU) development remains a significant complication among at-risk patients. Optimal prevention strategies start with knowledge about current evidence-based prevention interventions. A pilot study was conducted to describe nurses' level of knowledge of PU preventive interventions and to test the reliability of the Pressure Ulcer Knowledge Test (PUKT) among Nigerian nurses. One hundred, eleven (111) nurses were purposively selected from specific wards of a state teaching hospital in South West Nigeria. While 106 nurses (95.5%) correctly identified patients at risk for PU development, 78 participants (70.3%) had low (<59% correct) prevention intervention knowledge scores. No significant differences in PU prevention intervention knowledge scores were observed between nurses with different educational backgrounds (P = 0.317) or years of working experience (P >0.005). The Cronbach's alpha coefficient for reliability was 0.861. The results of this study confirm that many PU prevention interventions in Nigeria are based on tradition and that a structured educational approach is needed to enable Nigerian nurses to provide evidence-based PU prevention interventions.