Implications for practice and research

• Pressure ulcers are highly prevalent in patients receiving palliative care, probably due to underlying conditions, which may provide a false-negative picture of healthcare-associated harm in the palliative care.

• There is a need of more research on how to prevent pressure ulcers and how to increase comfort when pressure ulcers occur among palliative patients.

Context

Pressure ulcers can be seen as an adverse event or care injury1 that causes pain and distress for the patient, but it may also cause feelings of failure of care among nursing staff and increased costs for care.2 The difficulty with pressure ulcers is the complexity, where no single factor predicts pressure ulcers, but the occurence is often an interplay of many different factors and severe conditions …