Date of Award
2024
Document Type
Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)
Degree Name
Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)
Department
Nursing
Committee Chair
Ann Bianchi
Committee Member
Brette Sevensson
Committee Member
Demetrius Holiday
Subject(s)
Bedsores--Prevention, Bedsores--Risk assessment, Bedsores--Nursing, Long-term care facility residents
Abstract
Patients living in long-term care facilities are highly susceptible to developing pressure injuries. Decubitus and pressure ulcers, commonly identified as pressure injuries, are potentially the most highly preventable injuries in the healthcare setting. These adverse events remain a critical problem. Pressure injuries in the United States continue to increase due to a growing aging population and a lack of efficient, theory-based preventive plans. Examining this healthcare concern as a crisis versus an inevitable run-off of long-term care gives practitioners a necessary perspective to reverse and eliminate pressure injury prevalence. Pressure injuries frequently occur among older adults with compromised health and mobility problems. Many aged adults live with a physical or cognitive disability and other health issues such as obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular, peripheral vascular, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which requires care dependency. Pressure injuries develop when tissue has been damaged due to diminished blood supply to localized areas, causing increased pressure, shearing, and friction to bony prominences. The most affected areas are the shoulders, elbows, hips, sacrum, knees, ankles, and heels. Pressure injury (PI) development is associated with approximately 2.5 million hospitalizations annually, with a significant financial burden on the healthcare system caused by prolonged care and treatment estimated at 11 billion dollars annually. Subsequently, pressure injuries are associated with severe illness, advanced age, and care dependency. The primary objective of the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) clinical practice change project was to decrease the incidence of PIs in a long-term care unit by implementing a PI preventive plan. Despite healthcare education advances, pressure injuries remain a significant and common problem. Instrumental in preventing PIs involves continuing education and learning through the practice of skilled-based education related to the preventive care and treatment of PIs. Equally relevant to PI prevention is skilled-based instruction that applies to layering education, creating valuable opportunities in the clinical setting to develop critical-thinking skills and fostering clinical decision-making proficiencies to improve knowledge of PI prevention, which is essential in nursing practice.
Recommended Citation
Calloway, Bertha, "A systematic comprehensive pressure injury (PI) preventive plan to guide care" (2024). Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP). 126.
https://louis.uah.edu/uah-dnp/126