Open AccessTaking the pressure off in the Emergency Department: evaluation of the prophylactic application of a low shear, soft silicon sacral dressing on high risk medical patients
Author(s) -
Cubit Katrina,
McNally Bernadette,
Lopez Violeta
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
international wound journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.867
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1742-481X
pISSN - 1742-4801
DOI - 10.1111/j.1742-481x.2012.01025.x
Subject(s) - medicine , pressure injury , emergency department , demographics , emergency medicine , physical therapy , surgery , nursing , demography , sociology
Pressure injuries are key clinical indicators of care standard. In Australia, pressure injuries increase length of hospital stay by 4·31 and cost $285 million annually. This pilot study examined the effectiveness of sacral dressing in reducing the prevalence of pressure injuries in older, high‐risk patients. A non randomised one‐sample experimental design was used in this study comprising of four phases. Of the 51 patients recruited to the study, one patient developed a sacral pressure injury compared to six patients identified in a known group with similar demographics who were not approached to participate in the study. The results indicated that patients in the known group were 5·4 times more likely to develop a pressure injury than the intervention group. Findings suggest that applying a protective sacral dressing with a low shear backing as part of a simple standardised prevention injury prevention regime commencing in the Emergency Department was beneficial in the prevention of pressure injury in older ‘at high risk’ medical patients.