Abstract

Every hospital has it challenges in combating ongoing issues. Hospital acquired pressure injury (HAPUI) is a preventable problem that many hospitals face every day. Many hospitals have implemented skin bundles, which are policies in place, to help reduce HAPUI rates, but why does it still exist? HAPUIs account for about 60,000 deaths per year in the United States (Padula et. al., 2019). Protecting patients’ skin should be the utter most importance when a patient enters the hospital. When a patient develops a pressure injury while in the hospital, the hospital is responsible for the cost of treatment to treat the pressure injury. This can cause financial strain on the hospital and nursing units if these continue to occur, especially because this is a preventable issue. Many facilities have been using evidence-based practice to update their skin bundles, and in recent news, the use of prophylactic foam dressings has caught the attention of many nurses. The literature supports the use of applying foam dressings to patients, to protect them from acquiring pressure injury. Applying these dressings to boney prominences such as the coccyx and sacrum have shown to reduce the risk for HPAUI. This would not only save the hospital money, but it would also keep patients safe and healthy. Therefore, it is recommended that the use of prophylactic foam dressings in an acute care setting can be used to aid in the reduction of HAPUI.

Date of publication

Spring 4-2023

Document Type

MSN Capstone Project (Local Access)

Language

english

Persistent identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/10950/4194

Degree

Masters of Nursing Administration

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