The relationship between nurses' pressure injury knowledge levels and attitudes towards prevention

Aim: The study was conducted to examine the relationship between nurses' knowledge levels of pressure injuries and their attitudes towards prevention. Material and Method: This research is of descriptive and correlational type. The sample of the research consisted of 286 nurses working in internal medicine, surgical clinics and intensive care units of a Training and Research Hospital in Giresun between August 15, 2023 and February 29, 2024. Nurse Introduction Form, Modified Pieper Pressure Ulcer Knowledge Test (Modified PUKT) and Attitude Towards Pressure Ulcer Prevention Instrument (ATPUPI) were used as data collection tools. In the analysis of data, Independent Groups t test, Variance analysis, Pearson correlation analysis, Mann Whitney U test, Kruskall-Wallis analysis and Spearman correlation analysis were used. Results: 63.3% of the participants were in the 26-33 age group, 81.5% were female, 69.6% were single and 81.1% had a bachelor's degree. The participants received 24.03±3.83 points from the prevention/risk sub-dimension of the Modified PUKT scale, 6.07±1.32 points from the staging sub-dimension, 4.75±1.48 points from the wound diagnosis sub-dimension and 34.77±5.36 points from the total of the Modified PUKT scale. They received 8.70±1.44 points from the sub-dimension of individual competence to prevent pressure ulcers, 10.70±1.36 points from the sub-dimension of priority to prevent pressure ulcers, 11.15±1.40 points from the sub-dimension of impact of pressure ulcers, 6.51±1.11 points from the sub-dimension of responsibility in preventing pressure ulcers, 6.70±1.05 points from the sub-dimension of effectiveness of preventing pressure ulcers and 43.77±4.45 points in total from the ATPUPI. A statistically significant, positive and low-level relationship was determined between the ATPUPI score and the total score of prevention/risk, staging, wound diagnosis and Modified PUKT (p<0.05). Conclusions: It was determined that nurses' attitudes towards pressure ulcer prevention were positive, their knowledge level was insufficient, and as the ATPUPI score increased, staging, wound diagnosis and Modified PUKT scores also increased. Keywords: Pressure injury, nursing care, knowledge level, attitude, prevention, wound care