Pressure Ulcer Management in Critically Ill Patients

Running head: PRESSURE ULCER MANAGEMENT IN CRITICALLY ILL PATIENTS
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PRESSURE ULCER MANAGEMENT IN CRITICALLY ILL PATIENTS
Introduction:
The nursing practice is evolving every day, and as a result the impact of the
technological innovations and infrastructural changes have helped in the evolution of a
patient care techniques and care delivery formats (Giger, 2016). The evidence based practice
can be defined as one such patient care delivery format which has helped in the improvement
of care quality and safety drastically in the past few decades (Murdaugh, Parsons & Pender,
2018). The evidence based practice has revolutionized the care delivery scenario drastically
in the last few decades. It has not only reduced an instances of medication errors and
communication errors, but it has also improve the quality and patent centeredness of the care
provided to the patients. This essay will attempt to employ the benefits of evidence based
practice in the context of pressure ulcer management in critically ill patients in intensive care
units.
Context or area of concern:
First and foremost, it is essential to identify and explore the area of concern for the
paper. In this case, the chosen area for concern is the pressure injury management for the
critically ill patients, in intensive care units. It has to be mentioned in this context that
critically ill patients are mostly immune-compromised which enhances their probability of
obtained pressure ulcers. As discussed by Santamaria et al. (2015), close to one fourth of the
total ICU patient population has been suffering from pressure injuries which not only
enhances complications to exacerbations that the patient is already suffering from, but also
enhances the health care costs and not of days in hospice care. As a result, the need for
intervention and strategic recommendations to overcome the risk of pressure injuries in the
ICU environment is a major requirement for the ICU care staff. Evidence based practice can
help improve the pressure injury management scenario drastically and along with that,
improve the quality of life of the patient population as well.

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PRESSURE ULCER MANAGEMENT IN CRITICALLY ILL PATIENTS
Steps of EBP:
The very first step of the EBP process while being implemented in the nursing care
scenario is Ask method, where a structured and scientific clinical question is developed. In
this step, the nurses are required to develop a key question which will represent the aims and
objectives of this paper (White, Dudley-Brown & Terhaar, 2016). The clinical question is
needed to be structured and succinct, and at the same time, incorporate the key search
phrases, which will be used in the database to conduct the literature search to acquire the best
evidence on the topic. In this case, the clinical question would be “what is the most optimal
strategy to prevent pressure ulcer in the critically ill patients residing in the ICU units?”
The next step of the EBP procedure is Acquire, which represents the phase where
literature evidences will be acquired after a thorough literature search (Schmidt & Brown,
2017). In this case, the databases Cochrane library will be used to conduct the literature
search, which will eventually be selected in the process of data implementation. The search
phrases that will be searched in this step will include “most optimal strategy”, “prevent
pressure ulcer”, “critically ill patients”, and “ICU units”. Each of the phrases will, be
connected with Boolean operators in the search to ensure proper evidence availing. It is
crucial for researchers to avail highest level of evidence, which is more authentic, reliable and
relevant for the care delivery scenario. In this case, I would be only utilizing level 1 and level
2 studies, which includes systematic reviews, randomized-controlled trials, and case control
studies (Schmidt & Brown, 2017).
The next step in the process will Appraise, where the articles selected will be
thoroughly and critically appraised to ensure that only has highest level of evidence
providing relevant, viable and authentic data is being utilized in the nursing care (Dang &
Dearholt, 2017). It is crucial for the nursing care professionals to understand the impact of
using the highest level evidences for their practice, not only these studies provide data that is