Nursesʼ Knowledge and Practices Related to Pressure Injury: A Cross-sectional Study

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to determine nurses' knowledge and practices regarding pressure injury and identify relationships between these factors and professional nurse characteristics. DESIGN: Cross-sectional, descriptive study. SETTING AND SUBJECTS: The sample comprised 347 nurses attending the 2013 and 2015 Wound Management Congresses. The meetings were organized by the Wound Management Association located in Antalya, Turkey. METHODS: A 35-item data collection form was designed for purposes of this study. It divided into 2 parts: 8 items queried demographic and professional characteristics of nurse respondents. The second part comprised 9 cases describing patients with pressure injury; these cases were associated with 27 items querying pressure injury-related knowledge and practices. Demographic and professional characteristics of nurse respondents were summarized via descriptive statistics. The Kruskal-Wallis H and Mann-Whitney U tests were used to identify relationships between nurse characteristics and pressure injury knowledge and practices. RESULTS: The mean score for the 27 items related to pressure injury knowledge and practices was 57.37 ± 14.26 out of 100 points. Pressure injury knowledge and practices were positively associated with nurses having a bachelor's and/or postgraduate degree (P = .012), nurses caring for a higher number of patients with pressure injuries per week (P = .042), nurses practicing in intensive care units and wound care clinics (P = .011), nurses with specific education in pressure injury (P = .000), and those indicating adequate skills and knowledge in pressure injury (P = .005). CONCLUSIONS: Nurses' knowledge and practices regarding pressure injuries were lower than anticipated in this sample. We recommend additional education and training activities to increase nurses' knowledge and practices related to pressure injury.