Baseline Knowledge of Direct Care Clinicians Regarding the Role of Full-body Support Surfaces in Pressure Injury Prevention.

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate direct care clinicians' understanding of the role of full-body support surfaces in pressure injury prevention.

METHODS

A questionnaire was developed and distributed to direct care clinicians through QR code (through flyers and online). A total of 333 surveys were included in the analysis. Survey data were analyzed using both descriptive statistics and a Fisher exact test to compare the answers of respondents who were certified in wound care with those who were not certified.

RESULTS

The majority of respondents were nurses (81.68%), but several other disciplines were represented. Of the respondents, 41% had practiced for 21 or more years, and the acute hospital setting was the most common area of practice (70.57%). Of the respondents, 73.87% were certified in wound care through at least one organization. More direct care clinicians who are certified in wound care were aware that testing standards are available for support surfaces as compared with those not certified in wound care (73.17% vs 62.07%). For the knowledge-based questions, the wound care certified clinicians performed better on 7 of the questions than those not certified (questions 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 9). Questions 3 and 7 demonstrated low proficiency within both groups.

CONCLUSIONS

Based on the survey results, there are several deficits in knowledge demonstrated by direct care clinicians regarding support surface standards and their clinical application for use in pressure injury prevention.