Nurses' knowledge on pressure ulcer care and its practice in intensive care unit at a public Hospital / Aishah Shahbuddin, Atifah Zakaria, Muhamad Ismail Abu Bakar

Background: Regardless of excess information on pressure ulcers' care, they remain a significant problem in a hospital. The urgency to reduce the prevalence of pressure ulcers has been well documented. The reasons for this lack of improvement have been explored, but the picture remains unclear. While some studies have suggested that nurses have the appropriate knowledge to prevent pressure ulcers developing but it seems that nurses did not implement their knowledge into practice, others suggest that nurses' knowledge of care strategies is insufficient. In Malaysia, the incidence of pressure ulcers is considered high especially in Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Based on a study in Selayang hospital, Malaysia showed that a prevalence of pressure ulcer considered high, it was 2.05% - 4.05% respectively. Objectives: To determine nurses' knowledge on pressure ulcer care and its practice in Intensive Care Unit Ward at Hospital Sungai Buloh, Selangor. Method: A cross-sectional descriptive design was carried out whereby a self-report survey of nurses' knowledge and practice on pressure ulcer care was distributed to 120 registered nurses in Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at a Public Hospital. Result: The results of this study determine that most of the nurses in the ICU have moderate level of knowledge and practice on pressure ulcer care with a percentage of 66.63% and 71.97%) respectively. Besides, the results also show that there is no association between nurses knowledge and practice on pressure ulcer care [X2 (2, N=103) =9.034, p=06]. Conclusion: This study determined nurses' level of knowledge and practice on pressure ulcer care. The results of this study propose that the knowledge and practice of participants is moderate and thus it could be improved. It is of particular concern that methods known to be detrimental were in common use. Thus, the researchers suggest that nurses practiced on pressure ulcer care should using evidence based practice that should be provided by organization of the hospital or country such as Braden Scale which is used as standard guidelines. In addition, the researchers suggest that nurses can update their knowledge through continuous nursing education regarding pressure ulcer care.