Risk assessment scales poorly predict pressure ulceration

doi:10.1136/bmj.326.7381.165/a

BMJ 2003;326:165 ( 18 January )

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Risk assessment scales poorly predict pressure ulceration

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR $---$ Several fundamental issues around the use of pressure risk scales are highlighted by the article by Schoonhoven etal.¹

These scales are poor predictors of pressure ulcer development, but nurses are encouraged to use them to meet the clinicalgovernance agenda. The guidelines from the National Institutefor Clinical Excellence recommend their use as an aide-mémoire,which should not replace clinical judgment.² Nurses shouldnot rely on these scales, but they do at least offer a frameworkfor assessment, unlike clinical judgment. The evidence from thestudy by Schoonhoven et al is that these tools may have some valuein detecting patients who will develop pressure ulcers, but witha high number of false positiveresponses.

This has resource implications in providing prevention strategies for patients who will not develop pressure ulceration. Usingthe Braden scale, we calculate that 728 of the 2190 patient weeks(33%) would require measures to . . . [Full text of this article]

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Prospective cohort study of routine use of risk assessment scales for prediction of pressure ulcers: Lisette Schoonhoven, Jeen R E Haalboom, Mente T Bousema, Ale Algra, Diederick E Grobbee, Maria H Grypdonck, and Erik Buskens
BMJ 2002 325: 797. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]