Nursing guidelines for comprehensive harm prevention strategies for adult patients in acute hospitals: An integrative review and synthesis

Use of point-of-care subepidermal moisture devices to detect localised oedema and evaluate pressure injury risk: A scoping review

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

To map current literature on bedside clinicians' use of point-of-care subepidermal moisture devices to identify increased pressure injury risk.

BACKGROUND

Pressure injuries are a substantial healthcare burden. Localised oedema occurs before visible or palpable changes, and therefore is a biomarker of increased pressure injury risk. Novel bedside technologies that detect localised oedema may aid early pressure injury preventative practices.

DESIGN

A scoping review.

METHODS

Arksey and O'Malley's six-step framework and the PRISMA-ScR guidelines guided this scoping review. CINAHL Complete, Embase, SCOPUS, Cochrane (wounds) and PubMed databases were searched for primary research and quality improvement projects published in English between 2008-2022. Included studies focused on clinicians' bedside use of subepidermal moisture devices to quantify localised oedema and pressure injury risk. The PAGER framework supported narrative synthesis of the extracted data.

RESULTS

Nine studies were selected from 1676 sources. Two point-of-care subepidermal moisture devices were identified in clinical use, largely by nurses. Inconsistent use and interpretations revealed significant knowledge gaps in clinical practice. Additionally, no included studies engaged patients or the public in their design.

CONCLUSIONS

Nurses recognise the value of objective measures in determining the risk of pressure injury and are the primary end-users of point-of-care subepidermal moisture devices. However, standardising procedural instructions and interpretive criteria to guide preventative measures requires further research.

RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE

International pressure injury clinical practice guidelines advocate for subepidermal moisture devices as an adjunct to routine clinical skin assessment, although little is known about bedside use. This scoping review reveals low adoption of such devices and the need to develop standardised procedures in their use and interpretation.

REGISTRATION

Open Science DOI https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/AB6Y5-7th of March 2022.

Nurses' harm prevention practices during admission of an older person to the hospital: A multi-method qualitative study

BACKGROUND

Nurses' harm prevention practices during the admission of older persons to hospital have important consequences for patient safety, preventable patient harm and length of hospital stay. Novel solutions are needed to assist nurses to balance complexity, high workload burden and patient safety during admission processes.

AIM

Explore the nurses' experiences of harm prevention practices during the admission of an older person to the hospital.

DESIGN

A multi-method qualitative study informed by frameworks of behaviour change and human-centred co-design.

METHODS

The purposive sample included 44 nurses, 5 clinicians from other disciplines and 3 consumers recruited from five general medicine wards across three hospitals of a large public health service in metropolitan Melbourne, Australia. Data were collected over 12 h of naturalistic observations of nurses during eight patient admissions, and during four participatory human-centred co-design workshops between August 2019 and January 2020. Observation, field notes and workshop artefact data were integrated for qualitative content and thematic analysis.

RESULTS

Analysis revealed a 5-step journey map, with a temporal logic, that captured nurses' experiences, as well as the enablers and barriers to harm prevention practices when admitting an older person to the hospital. The consensus was reached on three priority features to assist nurses to implement harm prevention practices when they admit an older person to the hospital: (1) prioritize important care; (2) tailor care to the individual and (3) see the big picture for the patient.

CONCLUSION

The novel research approach identified five steps in nurses' activities and harm prevention practices during admission of an older person to the hospital, and key features for a solution to assist nurses to keep patients safe. The findings provide the foundation for further research to develop interventions to assist nurses to manage high workloads during this complex activity.