Impact of a home based care package for elderly on prevention of bedsores

International Conference on Nursing & Emergency Medicine

December 02-04, 2013 Hampton Inn Tropicana, Las Vegas, NV, USA

Sukhpal Kaur

Scientific Tracks Abstracts: J Nurs Care

Abstract :

With average life expectancy crossing beyond 65 years, aged population in India is also increasing. Many elderly remain bedridden in last years of their lives. In India, incidence of bedsores has been reported to be 25% to 45%. A community based study was undertaken in Chandigarh, India to assess the effect of an intervention package on prevention of bedsore amongst elderly bedridden patients. Sixty three patients were enrolled in the study. Of them, twelve patients expired. Only 5 (6.3%) patients developed bedsore. Mean age of the patients was 77.87 yrs. More than half (57.14%) were females. Katz Index of Independence in Activities of Daily Living (ADL) and Braden Scale were used to assess the risk to bedsore development. A self instructional manual on prevention of bedsore was developed. All the caregivers were trained regarding positioning, changing the posture, changing the bed sheet, clothes of the patient, etc. Follow up was weekly for one month, fortnightly for three months and monthly for six months. During each follow up visit, patients were observed for bedsore development. In most ADL domains, 45-55 patients had zero Katz Index score (totally dependent) at baseline. It reduced to 11-16 patients at the endline. Completely dependent patients (19) at baseline reduced to only 3 at the endline. Similarly, the patients whose score was less than 9 in Braden Scale of risk assessment reduced from 20 at baseline to only 1 at 16th visit. The study proved that the intervention package was highly successful in preventing bedsores.

Biography :

Sukhpal Kaur completed her Ph.D. in 2003. She has twenty years of teaching experience. Presently, she is working as faculty at National Institute of Nursing Education, PGIMER, Chandigarh, India. She is member of 14 national scientific bodies. She has presented many papers and is the invited guest faculty at local, national and international conferences. She has number of publications in reputed journals and also is the author of many chapters in various books. She has keen interest in elderly and palliative care. She has completed many research projects. At present, she is the principal investigator of five research projects funded by institute research scheme; Dept of Science and Technology, New Delhi; Dept. of Biotechnology, New Delhi and Indian Council of Medical Research, New Delhi.