How does skin tones affect staff confidence when dealing with pressure ulcers
Early identification of changes to the skin is one of the most important tools to
protect patients who are at risk of developing pressure ulcers (Haesler, 2019).
Analysis of the recording of pressure ulcers on a Trust’s Incident Management
system (Datix) shows that Black and Asian patients have higher representation
when reporting grade 3 and 4 pressure ulcers than White patients. Staff
surveys were carried out to understand the impact of patient skin tone on staff
confidence when managing early signs of pressure-related tissue damage.
Analysis of these surveys show that staff progressively had less confidence in
identifying early signs of tissue damage in patients with dark skin tones. This
reduction in confidence is consistent across different staff ethnicities and across
different levels of staff experience managing pressure ulcers. Recommendations
for practice to address this issue based on responses from staff about what they
think works in management and identification of early signs of skin damage in
patients with dark skin tones have been made…
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Publication: How does skin tones affect staff confidence when dealing with pressure ulcers