Nurses’ Knowledge, Practices, and Barriers in Care of Patients with Pressure Ulcers in a Ugandan Teaching Hospital

Table 2

Nurses knowledge about pressure ulcers.

Nurses knowledge about pressure ulcers	%
Facts about pressure ulcers
Areas of skin compromised as a result of unrelieved pressure	83.9
Occur in immobile patients	92.9
Develop in stages	42.9
Commonly occur around bony prominences	91.1
Management requires interdisciplinary collaboration	39.3
Can lead to permanent disabilities like bone destruction	50
Sepsis is one of the complications	89.3
Contributes to overall hospital costs incurred by patient	69.6
Risk factors for developing pressure ulcers
Immobility	96.4
Pressure/compression	92.9
Friction/shear	64.3
Hypoxemia	28.6
Malnutrition	66.1
Anemia	10.7
Ischemia	42.9
Neurologic disease	50
Strategies used in prevention
Regular turning of patients	98.2
Keeping patients skins dry and moist	91.1
Encouraging patients to have a balanced diet	42.9
Ensuring patient is well hydrated	42.9
Removing any tightly fitting clothes from the patient	55.4
Providing cushions on areas at risk of pressure ulcers	89.3
Catheterization in case of incontinence	83.9

% indicates proportion of nurses who got the knowledge measuring item right.