Call to make pressure ulcer care ‘sexy’

A campaign to reduce avoidable pressure ulcers in acute hospitals by 50% is set to be rolled out across England this winter.

Stop The Pressure will use social media to raise awareness of pressure ulcer prevention and allow nurses to share resources and examples of good practice using the hashtag #stopthepressure.

It builds on the Stop the Pressure campaign developed in the Midlands and East NHS region in 2012-2013 which aimed to eliminate avoidable category 2, 3 and 4 pressure ulcers. So far the region has achieved a 49% reduction.

There will also be a series of Stop the Pressure events for student nurses, the first of which was held in Lincoln last week and attended by about 500 registered nurses and students.

Speaking at the event, United Lincolnshire Hospital Trust’s lead tissue viability nurse Mark Collier, said: “My ambition is that pressure ulcers become sexy. Not that we all want one, but that we all want to prevent them.

“Everyone wants to look at a cardiac case, but it is harder to get people interested in pressure ulcers.”

Stop the Pressure Lincolnshire was the brainchild of student nurse Charlotte Johnson who said it was “overwhelming” to see her idea to increase awareness of pressure ulcer prevention come to fruition.

NHS Improving Quality, which is running the campaign in partnership with NHS England, and health improvement centre Haelo, is seeking other enthusiastic students to take part in events.

The campaign will also actively share tools, case studies, blogs and latest thinking on pressure ulcer prevention on the websitewww.stopthepressure.com

It is also linking up with NHS Change Day 2014 to ask people to pledge changes they are going to make to prevent a pressure ulcer.

Source Nursing Times