Choose a systematic review from the list of approved reviews based on your interests or your practice situation. Wound care is the subject I decided to do my capstone project on due to the fact I am currently a wound care nurse. I use air mattresses everyday in my practice, along with many other interventions to prevent wounds. Formulate a significant clinical question related to the topic of the systematic review that will be the basis for your capstone change project. Are air mattress effective in preventing pressure ulcers in the elderly who are bed ridden?

Choose a systematic review from the list of approved reviews based on your interests or your practice situation. Wound care is the subject I decided to do my capstone project on due to the fact I am currently a wound care nurse. I use air mattresses everyday in my practice, along with many other interventions to prevent wounds. Formulate a significant clinical question related to the topic of the systematic review that will be the basis for your capstone change project. Are air mattress effective in preventing pressure ulcers in the elderly who are bed ridden?

I have never experienced working in a long term care setting and am curious to see your results. Would you perceive the air mattresses to be cost effective? What are your facilities current Patient Safety Practice for preventing pressure ulcers? In an acute care facility I worked for, 500-600 beds, they bought Hill-Rom Advanta 2 Med-Surg beds for every unit except ICU. It was in response to the Joint Commission 2008 patient safety goals of preventing Pressure Ulcers. And the CMS rule that if a pressure ulcer were obtained at the acute care setting, they (hospital) would not get paid. These beds have a motor and rotate small amounts of air to relieve pressure. But they are not air mattresses. Some patients hated them and requested they be turned off and some wanted information on how to purchase one. If needed we could order a P500 air mattress if patients had been admitted with a PU or developed one at the facility. It didn’t seem to matter what mattress that some patients were on they developed a PU. “Age, immobility, incontinence, inadequate nutrition, sensory deficiency, multiple comorbidities, circulatory abnormalities, and dehydration are a handful of the more than 100 factors that have been identified as placing adults at risk for developing PUs.2,34 In addition to having many risk factors, PUs can develop very quickly. PUs have been documented as developing in just an hour.” (Sullivan, N, 2013) This is scary, especially since most residents of nursing homes have high comorbidities. I am very curious to follow your research

Reference:

Sullivan N. Preventing In-Facility Pressure Ulcers. In: Making Health Care Safer II: An Updated Critical Analysis of the Evidence for Patient Safety Practices. Rockville (MD): Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (US); 2013 Mar. (Evidence Reports/Technology Assessments, No. 211.) Chapter 21. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK133388/