- Title
- Pressure ulcers in home care settings: is it overlooked?
- Creator
- Asimus, M.; Li, P.
- Relation
- Wound Practice & Research Vol. 19, Issue 2, p. 88-97
- Relation
- http://www.awma.com.au/journal/1902.php
- Publisher
- Cambridge Publishing
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2011
- Description
- The frequency of pressure ulcers in patients living at home is not well-defined. To quantify the extent of this issue, surveillance was conducted in 2009 within 45 community health sites across the Hunter New England Area Health Service of New South Wales (NSW). This is the first community pressure ulcer prevalence study completed in NSW. Seven hundred and ninety-six randomly selected patients cared for by community nurses participated in the study. A pressure ulcer prevalence rate of 8.9% (n=71, 95% CI=7.1–11.1%) was recorded, 6.5% (n=52, 95% CI=5.0–8.5%) if stage I pressure ulcers were excluded. A total of 111 pressure ulcers were identified on 71 clients, with 35.3% of the patients classified as high risk of developing pressure ulcers. Of the patients with pressure ulcers, 40.8% developed the ulcers during their care by community nursing staff. Similar portions of patients acquired their ulcers during hospitalisation or before admitted to the community nursing services. Issues requiring action from the survey include improving documentation of risk, improving speed and access to pressure redistributing devices, which were absent in 50% of the patients with pressure ulcers.
- Subject
- pressure ulcers; home care patients; community nurses; nursing care; aged care
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1056010
- Identifier
- uon:15975
- Identifier
- ISSN:1837-6304
- Language
- eng
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