Background: Pressure ulcer affects approximately 9% of all hospitalized patients and 23% of all nursing home patients, thereby posing to be a serious problem. However, prompt and effective treatment can minimize these dangerous effects and speed recovery.
Objective: To determine the effectiveness of an educational program on a family caregiver's prevention and management of pressure ulcers of bedridden patients after discharge from EL-Wafa Medical Rehabilitation Hospital, Gaza Strip, Palestine.
Materials and Methods: Preexperimental, prospective, with pretest and posttest, design was followed. The study recruited a convenient sample of 80 caregivers of the bedridden patients who were admitted to EL-Wafa Medical Rehabilitation Hospital. Pretest questionnaire was administered for the eligible subjects. The educational training package was delivered in three sessions within 1 week. Posttest questionnaire was filled after 3 weeks to assess the effectiveness.
Results: About 58.8% of the caregivers were women and 53.8% aged younger than 30 years. The performance of the caregivers has significantly improved after the program in most of the items (P < 0.05). Scores of subscales: wound care and dressing, proper nutrition, maintaining personal hygiene, incontinence training and knowledge about ulcers were all significantly higher after training (P < 0.05). The difference between the total domains after the program (M = 3.47) was significantly higher than the total domains before the program (M = 3.30; t test 4.87; P = 0.00).
Conclusion: The study revealed a high effectiveness of this educational-training program in managing and preventing pressure ulcers for bedridden patients by caregivers at their homes. Application of this preventive program should be extended to cover all rehabilitative and governmental hospitals in Palestine to reduce the burden of pressure ulcers on the families and the health-care system.
Key words: Pressure ulcer, educational program, prevention, caregivers, bedridden patients
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