Examining the knowledge and attitudes of the medical personnel working in a public hospital regarding pressure ulcer prevention

This study sought to examine the knowledge and attitudes of medical personnel regarding pressure ulcer prevention. It was carried out with 145 medical personnel who worked in a public hospital in İstanbul between March 2021- May 2021 and agreed to take part in the study voluntarily. Prior to conducting the study we obtained necessary permissions. We used the Personal Information Form, Pressure Ulcer Prevention Knowledge Assessment Instrument (PUPKAI) and the Pressure Ulcer Prevention Attitude Instrument (PUPAI) as data collection tools. For the statistical analysis we used the NCSS (Number Cruncher Statistical System) program. When assessing the study data we used the descriptive statistical methods, Shapiro-Wilk test, Student's t-test, Mann-Whitney U test, Kruskal-Wallis test, Pearson's and Spearman's correlation analysis. We accepted p<0.05 to be statistically significant. The mean age of the participants was 34.4±7.78 years. Of the participants, 82.1% were female and 73.1% had bachelor's degree. 75.2% of them had previously provided care to a patient suffering from pressure ulcer. According to the mean total PUPKAI score the participants had inadequate knowledge level regarding pressure ulcer prevention and conditions like their educational background and task affected the total PUPKAI score significantly. According to the mean total PUPAI score the participants had positive attitudes toward pressure ulcer prevention and conditions like their sex, task worked, risk assessment, provision of care to a patient suffering from pressure ulcer and training received outside the school education affected the total PUPAI score significantly. We found very weak correlations between the scores that the participants obtained from the total PUPKAI and PUPAI in a positive direction. As a consequence the study findings revealed that the medical personnel had positive attitudes and yet inadequate knowledge levels regarding pressure ulcer prevention. Keywords: Pressure ulcer, healthcare professional, attitude, knowledge, nursing care