Frequent Manual Repositioning and Incidence of Pressure Ulcers - Essay Example

Longer hospital stays and costs, as well as the substantial pain and suffering on the part of the patient, can be reduced if the focus will be given to preventing pressure ulcers. Frantz, Tang & Titler (2004) stated in their article that the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) conducted a literature review in the summer of 1990 and found out that the incidence of pressure ulcers range from 2.7%to 29.5%, 9% of it occur in general population while 66% occur in high risk populations.

Based on the results of the statistics, the population at relative high risks for pressure ulcers are more likely to have more incidences of the case.Thus, bedbound patients are at high risks for developing pressure ulcers. Learning the susceptibility of a population to develop pressure ulcers, a number of preventive measures including international and clinical guidelines for pressure ulcer prevention have been recommended; among of which include frequent repositioning of patients with limited mobility.

Although repositioning is an accepted and a standard guideline for pressure ulcer prevention, there are limited evidence and studies that would support the effectiveness of repositioning in reducing the incidences of pressure ulcers (Rich et al., 2011, 11). In addition, studies suggest that repositioning should depend on the level of tissue injury or stages of pressure ulcers. Therefore, before accepting repositioning as a standard practice at a national level, guidelines about the appropriate assessment tool to use and the correct number and duration of turns in repositioning must be well-established to render effective and cost-reducing prevention as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services no longer reimburses hospitals for treatment of hospital-acquired stage 3 and 4 pressure ulcers due to the reason that pressure ulcer can be prevented by using the current evidence-based practice guidelines (Cox, 2011, 365).

Early studies about preventing pressure ulcers through repositioning correlate to the number of movements of elderly at night. Hampton (2009) stated that an elderly make 20-40 full turns with small position changes every 5–10 minutes at night (p. 65). This should be a number of movements an elderly should do in order to prevent pressure ulcers; however, the number of turns is not applicable to bedbound patients as it only applies to healthy adults. Then on, subsequent studies focus on the duration of pressure as the most important indicator of pressure ulcer susceptibility until repositioning every two hours develop and become a ritual practice.

Repositioning the patient regularly is proven to reduce the incidences of pressure ulcer, however, turning every two hours can increase the risk of shearing and friction leading to damaged tissues (Hampton, 2009, 65). Thus, turning every two hours could not be effective in preventing pressure ulcer because increased friction is also a contributing factor for pressure ulcer development.