Newswise — PHILADELPHIA (February 5, 2018) – Pressure-related skin injuries, a nurse-sensitive quality indicator in hospitals, are associated with increased morbidity and higher costs of care. There’s been much attention focused on hospital-acquired pressure injuries (HAPI) in the adult population. However, while preventable, immobility-related and medical device-related pressure injuries (MDPI) also occur in hospitalized infants and children.

Preventing pressure injury in infants and children requires that clinicians accurately identify at-risk patients and apply reliable prevention strategies for those patients. Often, the Braden Q Scale is used to help identify pediatric patients at risk for developing these pressure-related skin injuries. Until recently, initial predictive validity testing of the Braden Q Scale only included immobility-related pressure injuries in critically ill pediatric patients aged two weeks to eight years.

In a study from the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing (Penn Nursing), a new, simplified Braden QD Scale now describes combined immobility-related and MDPI risk in a broader, more diverse sample of pediatric patients typically cared for in acute care environments. The multicenter, prospective cohort study was published in the January issue of The Journal of Pediatrics.

“The Braden QD Scale provides acute care pediatric clinicians with one instrument to predict both immobility- and device-related pressure injuries across diverse age and clinical populations,” says lead-author Martha A. Q. Curley, PhD, RN, FAAN, the Ruth M. Colket Endowed Chair in Pediatric Nursing at Penn Nursing and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “This instrument may be helpful in preventing iatrogenic injury, in facilitating quality monitoring of care, and in helping to guide resource allocation in the prevention of HAPI in hospitalized infants and children.”

Co-authors of the study include: Natalie R. Hasbani, MPH; Sandy M. Quigley, RN, MSN; Lindyce A. Kulik, RN, MS; Catherine N. Caillouette, RN, MS; and Margaret A. McCabe, RN, PhD, all of Boston Children’s Hospital; Judith J. Stellar, RN, MSN, of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia; Tracy A. Pasek, RN, DNP, of the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh; Stacey S. Shelley, RN, MSN, of the Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake City; Tracy B. Chamblee, RN, PhD, of the Children’s Medical Center, Dallas;  Mary Anne Dilloway, RN, BS, of Rady Children’s Hospital, San Diego; and David Wypij, PhD, of Harvard Medical School.

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About the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing

The University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing is one of the world’s leading schools of nursing. For the second year in a row, it is ranked the #1 nursing school in the world by QS University, and has four graduate programs ranked number one by U.S. News & World Report, the most of any school in the United States. Penn Nursing is currently ranked # 1 in funding from the National Institutes of Health, among other schools of nursing. Penn Nursing prepares nurse scientists and nurse leaders to meet the health needs of a global society through research, education, and practice. Follow Penn Nursing on: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram & YouTube.  

Journal Link: Journal of Pediatrics