Examining the level of knowledge of nurses about pressure injuries and evidence-based practices for prevention

Pressure injury is a preventable health problem that decreases the quality of life of the individual, increases the duration of hospital stay, the care expenses, morbidity and mortality rates. Nurses' compliance with evidence-based clinical practice guideline recommendations and their knowledge of pressure injury will improve their practices to prevent pressure injury. In this study; it was aimed to examine the nurses' knowledge level on pressure injury and their practice of evidence-based practices for prevention. 86 nurses working in the inpatient wards of two hospitals of a foundation university in Istanbul between 19 October and 30 November 2020 participated in this descriptive and cross-sectional study. The data were collected using the Nurse Identification Features Form, Modified Pieper Pressure Ulcer Knowledge Test (PUKT) and Nurses' Evidence Based Practices to Prevent Pressure Injury Form. The data were analyzed by using descriptive statistical analyzes (number, percentage, mean, standard deviation, min-max value), Independent Group T Test, One-Way ANOVA Test, Pearson Correlation Analysis and Post Hoc Analyzes (LSD, Tukey) in the SPSS 25.0 program, at the %95 confidence interval and p<0.05 significance level. Ethics committee approval of the study was obtained. It was found that the average age of the nurses was 26.43 ± 0.44, 79.1% were women, 79.1% were undergraduate, 88.4% received training on pressure injury and prevention, and 74.4% of them received training and in-service training. 95.3% of the nurses reported that they applied to prevent pressure injury in the service they work, 83.7% of them gave care to patients with developed pressure injury. The nurses' knowledge test mean total score was 32.94 ± 5.78, and the mean scores of the sub-dimensions were 23.39 ± 3.98 in the prevention and risk sub-dimension, 5.58 ± 1.66 staging sub-dimension and 3.96 ± 1.29 wound description sub-dimension. The difference between the mean scores of the knowledge test scores according to gender (wound description sub-dimension) and the condition of caring for the patient with pressure injury (prevention and risk sub-dimension, staging sub-dimension) was found to be statistically significant (p<0.05). There is a positive and weak level between the years of clinical experience and the prevention and risk sub-dimension score; it was found that there was a weak and positive correlation between years of clinical experience in internal clinics and the prevention and risk sub-dimension, the staging sub-dimension and the total scores of the Knowledge Test. More than half of the nurses reported that they always performed 87.7% of the evidence-based practices, while 30.2%-48.8% of them sometimes performed 57.1% of the practices. It was found that the knowledge score averages of those who always performed evidence-based practices were significantly higher than those who never (42.7%) and those who always did it (34.2%) reported that they sometimes do (p<0.05). According to the knowledge test with a cut-off point of 70%, it was found that only the knowledge level of nurses about prevention and risk was above the passing limit, and the results that were found to be significant according to the status of performing evidence-based practices belonged to the nurses who stated that they always performed the practices with this rate. It has been suggested that the training method related to pressure injury should be developed and the approaches that will increase the effectiveness of the training should be used, the nurses should improve their practices in line with the evidence-based guideline recommendations and use clinical approaches that will enable them to perform them regularly (always). Key Words: Nursing, Pressure Injury, Evidence-Based Practice, Knowledge