While high-risk patients typically get a facility’s full wound-prevention protocol, a new study finds conducting assessments of mild- and moderate-risk patients also helps prevent pressure injuries among that often overlooked population.
Previous studies have questioned the association between risk assessment and pressure injury management. Researchers in Austria examined whether recommended interventions were more frequently used in at-risk patients who received a risk assessment.
Results published in Skin & Wound Care showed that conducting and documenting a risk assessment for all patients in a hospital setting did, in fact, lead to more recommended interventions such as barrier creams, malnutrition screening and heel-suspension devices.
The team did not recommend a specific risk assessment, noting that clinical observation of activity and mobility imitations was important, with or without the additional support of the Braden, Norton or Waterlow scales.
The study also showed nurses might risk-assess older or more care dependent patients more often, but that other potential cases might be “overlooked” because of that unintentional bias.
From the September 2019 Issue of McKnight's Long-Term Care News
