Hospital-aquired pressure ulcers, prevention, and behavioural insights

What is it about?

It may be a fallacy to state that most pressure ulcers are preventable, as research typically fails to recognise that most NHS nurses do not work in a well-staffed and well-equipped work environment 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This article acknowledges this and proposes disrupting the current workflow with a default intervention that reduces the risk of pressure ulcers forming, without creating more work for under-resourced staff.

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Why is it important?

The NHS Next Stage Review defined quality on three criteria, two of which focused on safety: doing no harm to patients and providing effective care (Charles et al, 2017). The NHS is under increasing pressure, principally due to financial and workforce constraints. As a result, incremental improvements, which can help alleviate both of these pressures, are vital. This proposal is just one which recognises that: ■■ There is a gap between theory and practice (Källman and Suserud, 2009) ■■ Context matters (Moore and Price, 2004; Tubaishat et al, 2013; Samuriwo, 2010) ■■ Quality improvement is about supporting frontline staff by making it easy, systematic, and reducing variation (Charles et al, 2017).

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