Nurses’ Attitudes Towards Pressure Ulcer Prevention Guidelines at a Referral Hospital in Kenya.

Abstract

Pressure ulcers are among the leading causes of mortality and morbidity among bedridden patients globally. Prevention is cheaper than management and efforts should be geared towards prevention. The prevalence of hospital acquired pressure ulcers ranges between 2-38% globally. The aim of this study was to determine the attitudes of nurses towards pressure ulcer prevention guidelines, and establish the relationship between nurses’ attitude and pressure ulcer prevention practice at Embu Level 5 Teaching and Referral Hospital in the month of July 2018. A descriptive cross-sectional research design was used and the tool for data collection was a self-administered semi- structured questionnaire. Data was analyzed using IBM SPSS software version 21. 118 nurses who were selected using stratified random sampling method. Permission to collect data was obtained from NACOSTI Ref no: NACOSTI/P/18/38217/22979. Majority (63.6%) of the nurses had a positive attitude towards the guidelines. Chi squared tests revealed that attitude did not significantly affect adherence to NCK guidelines (P=>0.05). Nurse’s attitude was not a significant predictor of pressure ulcer prevention practice. Keyword: Nurses, attitudes, ulcer prevention, guidelines, referral hospital, Kenya.