Patient and Family Perspectives of Pressure Injury Prevention and Management in Acute Care: A Cross-Sectional Survey

To explore pressure injury prevention and management in acute care settings from the perspective of patients, caregivers and families.

Cross-sectional survey.

A convenience sample of patients at risk of pressure injuries and their family or caregivers was recruited from medical, surgical and intensive care units across the province of Alberta, Canada. The custom survey included questions about perspectives on the care they received, involvement in care and preferences regarding involvement. Data were summarised with descriptive statistics and analysed using generalised estimating equations, logistic regressions and Mann-Whitney U-tests.

The response rate was 44%. The survey was completed by 161 participants (80.1% patients and 19.9% caregivers). The participants were 58.4% female, 63.4% from rural locations and 21.1% self-reported a pressure injury. Participants were most involved in repositioning activities and least involved in activities related to exercise. While 80.7% of respondents reported knowing what a pressure injury was, 69.6% reported that they had not heard about or received prevention resources from the healthcare team. Hearing about pressure injury prevention while admitted to hospital was associated with a significantly lower self-reported presence of pressure injuries. Brochures/pamphlets and verbal information were the most preferred educational resources.

Patient and family perspectives should inform pressure injury education and prevention activities in acute care settings. We recommend utilising brochures/pamphlets and verbal information, enhancing activity levels and exercise, encouraging patients and families to actively participate in prevention and maintaining a culture of supporting patient and family advocacy.

Findings provide insight into patient and family perspectives on pressure injury prevention and management in the hospital setting that can be addressed to enhance patient and family-centred pressure injury prevention.

Patient and family advisors informed the design of the survey and provided feedback on content, formatting and readability.

Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) guidelines for cross-sectional studies.