Compliance management of elevating the head of bed among intensive care unit nurses

Objective To find out a management method to improve the compliance of elevating the head of the bed among intensive care unit （ICU） nurses.Methods Totals of 187 patients needed to elevate the head of the bed from February to May , 2012.During this period of time , no nursing intervention was applied . Then, totals of 144 patients needed to elevate the head of the bed from July to October , 2012.During this period of time, extra nursing intervention was used . The degree of elevation was compared between groups . Results After the intervention, 121 patients （84.0%） got the head elevation of the bed over 30 degree, which was higher than 18 patients （ 9.6%） before the intervention , and the difference between two groups was significant （χ2 =184.88,P <0.01）.The influencing factors of elevating the head of the bed of 43 nurses included that 43 nurses （100.0%） without the measuring tools; 40 nurses （93.0%） thought that patients glided from the bed increased the difficulty of elevating the head of the bed;20 nurses （46.5%） were afraid that elevating the head of bed would increase patients’risk of pressure ulcer .Conclusions The compliance of elevating the head of the bed can be improved by effective interventions , which include raising the understanding , improving the nursing devices , standardized the training method and strengthening the supervision measures . Key words: Intensive care unit（ICU） ;  Compliance;  Elevating the head of bed;  Management