Strategies to support pressure injury best practices by the inter‐professional team: A systematic review

Abstract

Optimal pressure injury (ulcer) management by the inter-professional team requires appropriate health care system and organisational resources, infrastructure, and policies. A systematic review was conducted on pressure injury care-related education and health care system-/organisation-level strategies. A search for relevant articles published between January 2006 and October 2014 was applied to 8 databases. Ultimately, 22 articles pertaining to education and training and 12 articles pertaining to health care system and organisation supports for pressure injury care were included in the systematic review. A lack of pressure injury assessment and management knowledge by health care professionals was an overriding theme in the education literature. Some of the methods preferred for pressure injury education among nurses and physicians included information technology (eg, e-learning) with technology support and the use of high-quality wound pictures. Although the evidence is scarce, the literature did highlight specific system- and organisation-level barriers and enablers that influence practice change, including inter-professional communication and human resource investments. In conclusion, (1) the current evidence on the education and system-level enablers, barriers, and strategies to optimise pressure injury best practices requires further investigation, and (2) multi-faceted, up-stream, evidence-based approaches for pressure injury care are essential to improve health care and patient-related outcomes.

Hospitalists' Needs Assessment and Perceived Barriers in Wound Care Management

“…For example, online training from available sources such as the Wound, Ostomy and Continence Nurses Society Wound Treatment Associate (WTA) course may be an avenue for educating a broader array of inpatient providers that the hospitalists evaluated in this QI project. Like findings identified from Suva's work, our project found that providers wanted online learning tools 20 . Also, research has shown that e-learning tools have been effective in the management of wounds, specifically PIs 21 .…”

Implementing TIMERS: the race against hard-to-heal wounds

“…64,169,[176][177][178] Although the evidence may be relatively weak, effective multidisciplinary communication is likely to lead to better care. 179 A number of expert international, national and local guidelines have been produced specific to the main wound aetiologies and to processes in the wound management pathway and as general guidelines that cover most major wound types. Health professionals should refer to these guidelines, appropriate to their health-service delivery, for best practice.…”

Australian First-Year Nursing Student Knowledge and Attitudes on Pressure Injury Prevention: A Three-Year Educational Intervention Survey Study

“…Nursing students often do not have sufficient knowledge about contemporary guidelines, preventing utilisation once they begin practicing in healthcare environments [ 3 , 7 , 12 ]. It is important for nursing students to have sufficient knowledge, skills, and positive attitudes on completion of educational preparation to prevent pressure injuries, and if necessary, to recognise, assess, and treat these wounds properly [ 8 , 13 ]. It is important to identify widely spread misconceptions and evaluate educational needs about pressure injury prevention to develop strategies for improving the quality of pressure injury education and prevention.…”