Evaluation of a formal care worker education intervention on pressure ulceration in the community

Aim. To develop and evaluate an educational intervention on pressure ulceration for formal care workers Objective. To improve the knowledge and understanding that formal care workers have on the significance of skin changes and to improve earlier identification and management of pressure ulceration. Background. Evidence suggests that there is a continuing rise in the elderly population with co-morbidities and the risk of them developing pressure damage is increased. Formal care workers are ideally placed to help identify and alert healthcare professionals about these high risk patients yet current education provision is ad hoc and lacks standardisation. Design. An insider approach to action research was adopted to develop and evaluate an education intervention on pressure ulceration to formal care workers from 10 residential homes and 6 private care agencies. Methods. An education intervention was delivered to 250 participants following which a questionnaire was utilised to evaluate the session including verbal and written feedback from the participants. A pre and post intervention audit was conducted to assess the impact on pressure ulcer prevalence in November 2014 and May 2015.add dates Results. The sessions were evaluated by 86% participants who completed questionnaires, with an average score of 4.95/5. Many of the participants had previously received no training on this subject. There was an overall 29% reduction of all pressure ulcers with a 57% reduction of pressure ulcers across the residential homes. Conclusion. This paper reports on the results from the evaluation of an educational intervention on the prevention and early identification of pressure damage, delivered to formal care workers who support patients either in residential care or in their own home. Relevance to clinical practice. Formal care workers are an under-utilised group and could potentially have an impact on the early identification pressure damage or those patients at high risk, improving the quality and cost effectiveness of pressure ulcer managemen