Incidence and Characteristics of Hospital-Acquired Pressure Injuries in Acute Palliative Care Patients: A Four-Year Analysis.
Saroeun Ven, Michael Steele, Adam Burston and 4 others
PMID 40384502WHAT IT FOUND
In a palliative care unit, 78 of 1976 acute-phase admissions developed hospital-acquired pressure injuries over four years.
Higher symptom severity was reported as a predictor, while palliative care phase alone was not.
Key findings
01The cumulative incidence of hospital-acquired pressure injury in acute-phase palliative care admissions was 3.9%, with 78 cases among 1976 admissions.
02Patients who developed pressure injuries had worse RUG-ADL and PSS scores than those who did not.
03The Problem Severity Score was the only significant predictor; for each point increase, patients were 1.2 times more likely to develop a hospital-acquired pressure injury.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
Hospital-acquired pressure injuries may have been under-recognised and under-reported; cross-referencing databases found 13 cases not reported in the incident system. Waterlow scores were not available for patients who did not develop a pressure injury, and the score on the day of injury was not recorded. The study was single-site and retrospective, so findings may not apply to other palliative care units. The regression model explained only 0.8% to 2.9% of variance, so the identified predictors were weak. The paper notes inconsistent definitions of acute palliative care and that the Waterlow Score is not designed for this cohort.
Declared interests
The authors declare no conflicts of interest. Funding came from The Prince Charles Hospital Foundation.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the 3.9% incidence as proof that pressure injury prevention is adequate in this cohort. The study also found that 13 pressure injuries were not reported in the main incident system, so the true incidence may have been higher.