What are the barriers to preventing pressure ulcers occurring in hospitalised patients with a hip fracture?

Pressure ulcers are a major complication from hip fractures; however even though pressure ulcers are preventable it is evident that pressure ulcers are still occurring in those patients with hip fractures. Hip fractures are common in the elderly population and as the aging population is increasing it can be thought the risk of pressure ulcer development will increase, therefore the aim of this dissertation is to discover the barriers to preventing pressure ulcers in hospitalised patients with a hip fracture. The literature review suggests that education is a barrier to nursing assessments and managing the risk of pressure ulcer development. Delays to surgery was evident to increasing the risk of pressure ulcer development and literature suggests that nurses should be aware of this risk when carrying out the initial assessments to put in place the correct managing techniques. The implementation of ward based educational sessions and a clinical care pathway to prevent pressure ulcers in those with hip fractures has been introduced in the application to nursing practice in chapter three. An audit has then been implemented to evaluate the effectiveness of the application to practice