Masoumeh Sardari, Roghayeh Esmaeili, Nadereh Naderi Ravesh, Maliheh Nasiri

Abstract

Introduction: Pressure ulcers are one of the five common causes of patient injury in the world and they are preventable problem concerning patient safety. Nursing staff are primarily responsible for the patient's skin care and for the preventive measures of pressure ulcers. Therefore, this study aims to determine the impact of pressure ulcer care program on performance of nurses at intensive care unit over the prevention of pressure ulcer. Methods: This experimental study was performed on nurses working at intensive care units. 66 nurses were included in the study by two-stage sampling method, including random sampling and random allocation, and were divided into intervention and control groups. Research materials included a researcher-made observation checklist. In the intervention group, the training program for pressure ulcer care included a training workshop, presentation of pamphlets and educational CDs and was presented during three 90-minute-length training sessions in groups of 9. Nurses' performance over pressure ulcer prevention in the intervention and control groups were evaluated before and two weeks after the intervention. Results: Mean score of nurses' performance before and after training in control group were (57.04±9.65), (57.69±10.13) respectively and in the intervention group were (54.56±11.45), (86.28±6.19) respectively. There was a significant difference in nurses’ performance before and after training in the intervention group (P value<0.001). Conclusion: The results of this study showed that nurses' performance over pressure ulcer prevention is not desirable, and the training program of pressure ulcer care can improve nurses’ performance in this regard. Therefore, the use of these training methods is recommended to improve clinical performance of the nurses.