Operating Room Nurses' Knowledge of and Attitudes About Pressure Injury Prevention: A Descriptive Cross-Sectional Study.

Background: Understanding nurses' knowledge and attitudes might be important in influencing their behaviors of complying with pressure injury prevention measures in the operating room.

Purpose: The aim of this descriptive and cross-sectional study was to determine operating room nurses' knowledge and attitudes about pressure injury prevention.

Methods: This study was performed with 174 nurses working in the operating rooms of 5 hospitals in Istanbul between July and October 2020. The data were collected with the Modified Pieper Pressure Ulcer Knowledge Test-MPPUKT and Attitude Towards Pressure Ulcer Prevention Instrument-APuP and analyzed with parametric and nonparametric tests using the SPSS 20.0 package program. The statistical significance level was accepted as P < .05.

Results: The total mean score of the MPPUKT of the operating room nurses was 32.72 ± 6.65, and the knowledge level of only 57.5% of the nurses was considered sufficient (MPPUKT score ≥ 70%); the total mean score of the APuP was 44.67 ± 3.10, and almost all (94.8%) had a satisfactory attitude (≥75%). In addition, there was a significant positive correlation between the knowledge and attitudes of the operating room nurses about pressure injury prevention (P = .000).

Conclusion: This study has shown that the knowledge level of the operating room nurses was weak and their attitudes were satisfactory. It is recommended to improve the knowledge and attitudes of operating room nurses to prevent pressure injuries through effective in-service training programs.