Abstract
Background: Pressure injuries are often preventable negative outcomes of patient care within hospital settings. The implementation of prevention strategies often becomes the responsibility of the bedside registered nurse taking care of the patient. Due to the highly vulnerable patient demographic, pressure injuries are highly prevalent in intensive care units. Hospital facilities should implement quality improvement initiatives, such as dedicated pressure injury prevention roles to provide extra assistance in reducing patient harm. The link nurse role is a dedicated pressure injury prevention role which was implemented in an intensive care unit of a city's main public hospital in New Zealand.
Aim: The aim of the current research is to assess the impact of the pressure injury prevention link nurse role on pressure injury prevalence in the intensive care unit of Hospital A.
Method: Pressure injury incidence report data was extracted from the Safety First database containing information regarding yearly totals of incidence reports, totals by stages of pressure injuries and the location in which these pressure injuries developed. Descriptive statistics were used to present the data.
Results: There was an increase in the total number of pressure injury incidence reports in the year immediately after the implementation of the link nurse role, which was then followed by a continuous yearly reduction in total pressure injury incidence reports. The link nurse role also impacted the severity of pressure injuries that developed, with a reduction in stage four pressure injuries post-implementation of the link nurse role. High Nasal/Nose location of pressure injuries shows the impact that medical devices have in the intensive care unit and the importance of catering prevention strategies towards addressing this.
Conclusion: Preventing pressure injuries through quality improvement initiatives such as the link nurse role should be supported by healthcare organisations as these roles can have a significant impact on preventing adverse consequences of care. This ultimately improves patient safety and outcomes which should be the bottom line goal for all healthcare organisations.