Purpose: In recent years, the incidence of pressure injury caused by non-invasive positive pressure ventilation (NIV) in our unit has increased year by year, causing pain, increasing the risk of infection and the number of nursing hours, and even increasing the hospital stay. Therefore, improvement measures must be implemented to reduce the incidence of pressure injury.
Methods: The study unit was the thoracic medicine ward. In 2017, NIV was used for 281 persontimes/year, and the incidence rate of pressure injury caused by NIV was as high as 48.4%. The task force determined the following reasons for the high incidence of pressure injury: (1) lack of NIV care guidelines and review mechanisms, (2) lack of relevant education and training, (3) no use of protective foam dressings or inconsistent dressing choices, (4) no assessment of skin integrity and pressure relief every 2 hours, (5) failure to adjust the tightness of the headgear mask appropriately, (6) no provision of skin protection standard pictures, and (7) difficulty in observing the original fixation method. The following improvement measures were proposed: (1) developing standard operating procedures for pressure injury caused by NIV, (2) conducting on-the-job training, (3) evaluating the correctness of care, (4) purchasing special tailoring rulers and standardized dressings, and (5) using NIV care standard pictures, and (6) innovating NIV special headgear.
Results: The incidence rate of pressure injury caused by NIV was effectively reduced to 13.7%.
Conclusion: By implementing the aforementioned improvement measures, we effectively reduced the incidence rate of pressure injury and improved care quality.