Pressure Injury Education Intervention for Pediatric Intensive Care Nurses: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Children with critical illness in intensive care units are a high-risk group for pressure injuries due to immobility and intensive medical device use (Setchell et al., 2023). The study will be conducted with nurses working in third-level pediatric intensive care units within a city hospital in Ankara. There are five pediatric intensive care units in the hospital: a 16-bed Pediatric Surgical Intensive Care Unit, a 16-bed Pediatric Cardiovascular Surgery Intensive Care Unit, a 12-bed Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, and another 12-bed Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. The number of nurses working in these intensive care units is 25, 20, 28, and 29, respectively. These 102 nurses constitute the population of the study. Firstly, the sample size was determined. G-power 3.1.9.4 analysis program was used to determine the sample size. Considering a similar study on the topic, the sample size was calculated (Karimian et al., 2020). The effect size was calculated as 1.23 in the reference study. According to this effect size, considering a 5% error rate (α) and 95% power (1-β), it was determined that there should be a total of 38 participants in the study, with 19 in the intervention group and 19 in the control group. However, assuming possible losses in the sample, the sample size was increased by 30%, resulting in 25 participants in the intervention group and 25 in the control group (n1: 25 - n2: 25). Then, considering the sample size, the pediatric intensive care units where nurses would participate in the sampling were determined. Three-month pressure injury rates of these intensive care units were obtained from the hospital's quality unit to determine these units. According to these rates, these intensive care units were ranked. The first two ranks were taken by the Pediatric Intensive Care Units. To prevent the intervention and control groups from influencing each other, one of the intensive care units was designated as the intervention group and the other as the control group. During the assignment, these intensive care units were given names A and B by a person unrelated to the study. The intervention and control groups were determined by a lottery method. There are enough nurses in the relevant intensive care units to meet the determined sample size of the study. After determining the sample size of the study, the training dates were planned. The principal investigator of the study is also the pediatric wound care nurse at the hospital. As of the planned training date, service supervisors and the researcher made two calls for pre-test participation in both the intervention and control groups. Each of the intensive care units involved in the study has 12 beds and provides care to two patients per nurse. There are 8 nurses working in shifts of 08-08 hours per day. Pre-test data collection is planned for 3 days without disrupting the operation of the intensive care units. After the pre-test data collection, a pressure injury training consisting of 3 sessions lasting 40 minutes each will be provided to the intervention group for 1 week without disrupting patient care. Although the intensive care units are on separate floors in the hospital, the nurses are separate, but the patient profiles are similar. Two weeks after the completion of the training, post-test data will be collected in a similar manner. The training will cover pressure injury definition and classification, risk factors and assessment scales for pressure injuries in children, and pressure injury prevention and care. The collected data will be analyzed and interpreted using statistical methods. Pressure injury rates in the intensive care units will be compared again after the training. The questionnaire used to measure the nurses' knowledge levels and the training were created by the principal investigator. The created training and questionnaire were sent to 10 expert doctors who are specialists in their respective fields for expert opinion. The results of the expert opinions were statistically analyzed. The Cronbach's Alpha Internal Consistency Coefficient for the questionnaire used for pre-test and post-test was calculated as a total of 0.977, which is considered highly reliable.The training content has also been found to be at a very appropriate level.