Evaluation of the grade of knowledge of the recommendations for the prevention and care of pressure sores in Critical Units

The appearance of pressure sores (PS) is an event linked to the clinical safety of the patient and the available epidemiological information indicates that these injuries are a significant problem in the Critical Units. This present study aims to determine the grade of knowledge of the nurses in these Units on the evidence based recommendations of prevention and treatment of PS. Descriptive, cross-sectional study conducted in 8 Critical Units of 3 hospitals. 171 nurses. ad hoc self-administered questionnaire on evidence based recommendations regarding 11 preventive interventions and 11 of treatment of PS. The questions had 5 response options, 1 of them valid. Sociodemographic data and opinion data were also gathered. descriptive, Spearman test. A total of 120 valid questionnaires were obtained. The mean known recommendations in prevention material was 6.53. Regarding treatment, it was 5.60. There is a negative correlation between the years of professional experience and knowledge on prevention recommendations. The grade of knowledge of the study nurses on the recommendations of PSs decreases with years of profession. These are better known that those of the treatment, but the general knowledge of the recommendations is far from best ideal.