Mapping the knowledge of nurses on pressure injuries in AULSS 6 Euganea: A multicentre cross-sectional observational study

Background: Pressure injuries represent a major clinical issue with a significant impact on quality of care and healthcare costs. Their prevention and management require in-depth knowledge from nurses but several studies have highlighted educational gaps in this area. This study aims to assess the knowledge of home care nurses on pressure injuries using the updated version of the Pieper-Zulkowski Pressure Injury Knowledge Test and to develop a shortened version of the questionnaire for a faster assessment. Methods: A cross-sectional observational study was conducted involving home care nurses working in the context of ULSS 6 Euganea. Knowledge was assessed using the Pieper-Zulkowski Pressure Injury Knowledge Test, and subsequently, Rasch Analysis was applied to reduce the number of items without compromising the validity of the test. Results: 102 nurses participated in the study. The overall average score of correct answers was 74%. Knowledge was highest in the prevention (79.2%) and wound description (75.9%) sections while staging section had the lowest score (65.9%). The Rasch analysis made it possible to reduce the number of items from 72 to 52 (-27,78%), improving the speed of administration without compromising the quality of the knowledge assessment tool. Conclusion: Nurses demonstrate good knowledge of pressure injury prevention and wound description but difficulties in their staging. The creation of targeted training courses could improve the preparation in this area. The shortened version of the Pieper-Zulkowski Pressure Injury Knowledge Test could facilitate the assessment of knowledge and participation in the test. Future studies will include an analysis of hospital-based nurses to obtain more representative and generalisable data.