Knowledge about medications and products to prevent and treat pressure ulcers: a cross‐sectional survey of nurses and physicians in a Primary Health Care setting

Angel Romero‐Collado, Erica Homs‐Romero and Edurne Zabaleta‐del‐Olmo

Journal of Clinical Nursing, 2013, vol. 22, issue 17-18, 2562-2571

Abstract: Aims and objectives To report on a study of what primary care nurses and physicians know about medications and healthcare products to prevent and treat pressure ulcers. Background The prevention and treatment of pressure ulcers has generally become the responsibility of the nursing staff; this has resulted in studies of nurses' knowledge of this task, although few studies include physicians in their analysis. Design Cross‐sectional survey conducted in North Girona (Province) Primary Care Services from February to April 2010. Methods The study questionnaire had three sections: sociodemographic data, questions about division of responsibility for the care of patients with pressure ulcers or at risk of developing them, and 36 statements based on the recommendations in clinical practice guidelines provided by well‐recognised national and international institutions. Results Eighty‐one nurses (64·8%) and 46 physicians (36·8%) responded to this study. Nurses had greater responsibility for the care of pressure ulcers, made greater use of medical prescriptions to obtain supplies if not available in the primary care centre, were more familiar with the site's clinical practice guidelines on the topic and showed better adherence to their recommendations. Nurses also had better knowledge than the participating physicians of the use of medications and healthcare products to heal or to prevent pressure ulcers. Conclusions Nurses had sufficient knowledge and more appropriate skills than the participating physicians for the prescription of medications and healthcare products for the prevention and treatment of pressure ulcers. Relevance to clinical practice The data demonstrated that nurses have sufficient knowledge and skill to provide wound care and could safely write these prescriptions, although Spanish law permitting nurse prescription is not fully implemented.

Date: 2013
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/jocn.12175

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wly:jocnur:v:22:y:2013:i:17-18:p:2562-2571

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Journal of Clinical Nursing from John Wiley & Sons
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().