A Descriptive Study of Turkish Intensive Care Nurses' Pressure Ulcer Prevention Knowledge, Attitudes, and Perceived...

Nurses should be highly knowledgeable about and have a positive attitude toward pressure ulcer (PU) prevention.

This descriptive study was conducted among intensive care unit (ICU) nurses in 6 hospitals in Turkey to identify their PU prevention knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions of barriers to care.

The study was conducted between January 1, 2017, and April 30, 2017, using supervised self-reporting, among nurses working in the ICUs of 3 education and research hospitals, 2 university hospitals, and a private hospital in Ankara, Turkey. Three (3) data collection instruments were used: a participant sociodemographic data collection form, the Pressure Ulcer Prevention Knowledge Assessment Instrument (range 0-26, where higher scores indicate more knowledge), and the Attitude Towards Pressure Ulcer Prevention Instrument (range 13-52; a higher score implies a more positive attitude). Frequencies, t tests, analysis of variance, Pearson correlation analysis, and multiple regression analysis were used to analyze the data.

Participants (N = 390) were mostly women (339; 86.9%) who had a bachelor's degree (283; 72.6%). The mean knowledge score was 11.54 ± 2.91, and the mean attitude score was 42.96 ± 4.06. The most commonly cited barriers to PU prevention were insufficient staff levels (85.6%) and pressure redistribution materials and equipment (82.6%). Regression analysis of attitude scores showed the following variables affected nurses' attitude toward PU prevention: self-sufficiency in PU risk assessment (β = 0.28), willingness to learn more about preventing PU (β = -0.15), gender (β = -0.15), and knowledge score (β = 0.14).

ICU nurses were found to have a low levels of knowledge but positive attitudes toward PU prevention. Policies and procedures should be developed to increase ICU nurse knowledge levels and remove barriers to optimal PU prevention practices.