The frequency of pressure injury in level 3 intensive care units and determination of risk factors: A cross-sectional study.

AIM: This study was carried out to determine the prevalence of pressure injury and risk factors in patients hospitalized in a university hospital's level 3 intensive care unit. DESIGN: It is a descriptive, prospective, observational type study. METHOD: The sample of the study consisted of 176 patients aged 18 and over who were admitted to the intensive care units of a University Hospital for at least 24 h. Patient Information Form and Braden Risk Assessment Scale, Glasgow Coma Scale were used to collect data. IBM SPSS Statistics 20 program was used to analyze the data. RESULTS: Presence of chronic disease in the development of pressure injury (22.7%), high-risk patients according to the Glasgow Coma Scale (21%), high-risk patients according to the Braden Risk Assessment Scale (84.2%), low hemoglobin (31%), low albumin levels (32.4%) and duration of stay in the intensive care unit until the day of evaluation were found to be independent risk factors (p < 0.05). The prevalence of pressure injury was determined to be 32.4%, and the rate of pressure injury due to medical devices was 7.4%. CONCLUSION: Pressure injuries are still common in adult intensive care patients. In terms of patient safety, it is important to give more space to care standards and awareness-raising research and training to prevent pressure injuries.

Determination of Pain-Related Knowledge and Behaviors of Adult Intensive Care Nurses.

AIM: To determine the knowledge and attitudes of adult intensive care nurses regarding pain. METHOD: This descriptive and cross-sectional study was conducted with 196 nurses working in the intensive care units of a tertiary university hospital between June 2022 and September 2022. Data were collected by face-to-face interview method, and the "Personal Information Form" and "Nurses' Knowledge and Attitude Scale Regarding Pain" were used as data collection tools. RESULTS: About 71.8% of the nurses were between the ages of 18 and 30, 58.5% were women, 54.9% had a bachelor's degree, and 55.1% had been working in intensive care for 0-5 years. The nurses' total knowledge and attitude score levels were 11.8% inadequate, 64.1% moderate, and 24.1% good. A statistically significant relationship was found between age, gender, receiving training on pain in the institution, satisfaction level with the unit in which one works, frequency of pain assessment and indicators taken into consideration when evaluating pain severity, and the total scale score average (p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The average pain knowledge and attitude scores of intensive care nurses are at a good level. Results can be further improved with planned training on pain.

Effect of Prewarming on Postoperative Hypothermia, Vital Signs, and Thermal Comfort: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

This study aimed to determine the effects of preoperative active and passive warming on postoperative hypothermia, vital signs, and perception of thermal comfort in patients scheduled to undergo elective open abdominal surgery. This was a randomized controlled study. The study sample comprised 90 patients (30 in the active warming group, 30 in the passive warming group, and 30 in the control group) who agreed to participate and met the research criteria. According to the comparison of patients' vital signs, a statistically significant difference was observed in terms of patients' preoperative body temperature values (χ2 = 56.959; p = 0.000). A comparison of the patients' postoperative thermal comfort perception scores yielded a statistically significant difference (χ2 = 39.693; p = 0.000). Postoperative comfort scores in the active warming group were significantly higher than those in the passive warming and control groups. In conclusion, warming methods are effective in preventing undesirable postoperative hypothermia. The time to reach normothermia after surgery was shorter, vital signs were at a desirable level, and thermal comfort perceptions were higher in patients who were prewarmed. ClinicalTrials.gov (Identifier: NCT04997694).

Investigation of Postoperative Risks of Nausea and Vomiting in Patients With Breast Cancer.

PURPOSE: To examine the risks of postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) in breast cancer patients. DESIGN: Descriptive, cross-sectional study. METHODS: The study was conducted in the surgical oncology department of a tertiary hospital between June 2020 and December 2020. A total of 83 female patients who were scheduled for surgical treatment for breast cancer were included in the study. The patients were evaluated using the Patient Evaluation Form created by the researcher by scanning the literature, the VAS Pain Rating Scale, and the Apfel Risk Scoring System. FINDINGS: A significant relationship was found between age and PONV at the 2nd, 4th, 8th, 24th and 48th hours after surgery (respectively: P = .00, P = .00, P = .00, P = .00, P = .00). There was a significant correlation between the duration of surgery and PONV at 0 hour, PONV at first oral intake and PONV at 4 hours (respectively; P ˂ .01, P ˂ .01). The highest rate of PONV of all time (50.6%) at the 0th hour when the VAS scores of the patients was the highest. The PONV rate at the 48th hour was the lowest of all time periods (1.2%) (respectively; P ˂ .01, P ˂ .01). CONCLUSIONS: While women with breast cancer who have undergone mastectomy have the highest risk of postoperative and nausea vomiting in terms of age and pain severity, the duration of the operation and the first oral intake time also pose a risk. Nurses play a key role in the quality of care, patient safety, and patient satisfaction. It is recommended that institutions create evidence-based strategies and take necessary precautions in the preoperative evaluation of patients in terms of postoperative nausea and vomiting.