Knowledge and attitudes of Turkish nursing students towards pressure injury prevention

Aim: Nurse educators are expected to teach nursing students the necessary knowledge and attitudes to prevent pressure injuries (PI) development. This study aims to assess the knowledge levels and attitudes of nursing students towards PI prevention and to analyze the relationship between their knowledge and attitudes. Material and methods: This study adopted a cross sectional, descriptive, and correlational research design. 259 students of the nursing department of a private university in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus during the spring semester of the 2018-2019 academic year constituted the population of the study. Student information form, the Turkish version of PI prevention knowledge assessment instrument (PUPKAI-T), and attitude towards PI prevention instrument (APuP) were used for data collection. Data were analyzed by Kruskal-Wallis, MannWhitney U tests and Spearman's correlation. Ethics committee approval was received. Results: Mean PUPKAI-T score was 10.16 +/- 2.44 (range: >= 16). Participants obtained the lowest score from the etiology and causes (32.3%) and classification and observation (33.5%) subscales of the PUPKAI-T. The mean score obtained by the participants from the APuP was 44.62 +/- 3.54 (range; min; 13, max; 52). We found a positive, weak, and statistically significant correlation between the PUPKAI-T and the APuP scores (r = 0.131, p = 0.034). Conclusion: The study found that the mean PUPKAI-T scores of the nursing students were low and their APuP scores indicated a positive attitude. The findings imply that the nursing curriculum might be revised and new courses might be introduced to increase the knowledge levels of nursing students on PI prevention.