Pressure Ulcer Prevalence in German Nursing Homes and Hospitals: What Role does the National Nursing Expert Standard Prevention of Pressure Ulcer Play?

Aim of the study: The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between the use of the National Nursing Expert Standard Pressure Ulcer Prevention and the pressure ulcer prevalence in German nursing homes and hospitals. Methods: Data were collected within two nationwide surveys conducted by the Department of Nursing Science of the Charite, Berlin, Germany. The surveys, designed as cross-sectional prevalence studies, serve as an investigation of the amount of clinically relevant nursing phenomena, i.e., pressure ulcers. Prevalence per facility in the at-risk group was explored by a ranking procedure of the 95 nursing homes and hospitals. The facilities were divided into two groups according to whether they used the German Expert Standard to develop the local protocol or not. Results: The pressure ulcer prevalence of the at-risk group ranged from 0 % to 24.6 % in nursing homes and from 7 % to 40 % in hospitals. In about 40 % of the hospitals and nursing homes the local protocol of pressure ulcer prevention was based on the German Expert Standard. The ranking figure indicates that there is no statistically significant relation between Expert Standard-based local protocols and the pressure ulcer prevalence in the at-risk group. Conclusion: A clear advantage to use the German Expert Standard compared with other sources cannot be shown with these data. However, a uniform pressure ulcer prevention is an essential quality feature of nursing care. The degree of implementation and the consequent transfer of the recommendations to daily practice should be evaluated regularly