LEVEL OF KNOWLEDGE AND ATTITUDES REGARDING PRESSURE INJURY PREVENTIONAMONG UNDERGRADUATE NURSING STUDENTS AT PRIVATE NURSING COLLEGES, PESHAWAR

Abstract

Background: Pressure injuries (PIs) remain a significant health problem worldwide and they result in augmented patient morbidity, longer hospital stays, and excessive associated healthcare costs. It has been observed that prevention is the most desirable method of the three and it is quite dependent on the attitude, knowledge, and practice of the healthcare provider, mostly so when it comes to the nursing students as they are the future of the nursing profession.Objective: The research was aimed to assess the knowledge and perceptions with regard to pressure injury prevention among undergraduate nursing students of the private nursing colleges in Peshawar, Pakistan.  Methodology: The research had a descriptive cross-sectional study design and the sample was 300 undergraduate nursing students selected purposively across four most known private institutions: Farkhanda Institute of Nursing, KPIMS, Rufaida College of Nursing, and Ahmed Institute. A self-administered questionnaire validated and used to collect data measured both knowledge and attitudes towards PI prevention. The frequencies and percentages were determined using descriptive statistics and the importance of the results was contextualized by comparing them to similar literature. Results: Among 300 respondents’ 34 percent were KPIMS, 24.7 percent were Rufaida College of Nursing, 23.3 percent were Ahmed Institute and 19 percent were Farkhanda Institute of Nursing. In general, the attitude to PI prevention appeared to be generally positive, whereas the level of knowledge was somewhere between moderate and decent, allowing to observe certain weaknesses in the practical implementation of preventive measures. These findings were in agreement with the past research studies that have shown that students in nursing programs always meant to have skills in theoretical knowledge than practice knowledge. Conclusion: The research highlights the need to improve the norms of PI prevention in curriculum performance, include more applied clinical experience, and use the approach of competency-based learning. These gaps may be considered to lower the possibility of students being ready to deliver high-quality patient care and mitigating the instances of pressure injuries in practice settings.