title: Nursing students' knowledge and attitude on pressure ulcer prevention evidence-based guidelines: a multicenter cross-sectional study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Pressure ulcers still remain a significant problem in many healthcare settings. Poor knowledge and negative attitudes toward pressure ulcer prevention could undesirably affect preventive care strategies.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To assess both knowledge and attitudes among nursing students on Pressure Ulcer Prevention Evidence-Based Guidelines.
  
  
  METHODS
  A multicenter cross-sectional survey was carried out from December 2012 to August 2013.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study was carried out in seven Italian nursing schools.
  
  
  METHODS
  We involved a convenience sample of nursing students (n=742) METHODS: Data were collected using two validated questionnaires to assess students' knowledge and attitudes on pressure ulcer prevention.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The overall Knowledge and Attitude scores were 51.1% (13.3/26) and 76.7% (39.9/52), respectively. We found a weak correlation between total Knowledge scores and total Attitude scores (rho=0.13, p<0.001). We also observed that nursing students' year of education, training experience and number of department frequented during their clinical placement were significantly related to both the Knowledge and the Attitude total scores (p<0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Nursing students' knowledge on pressure ulcer prevention was relatively low. However, we observed an association between a high level of education/training experience and higher knowledge scores. Most of the participants showed high attitude scores. These results suggest that positive attitudes toward pressure ulcer prevention may contribute to the compliance with the guidelines in clinical practice.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine and Aging Sciences, University of Chieti-Pescara, Italy. Electronic address: v.simonetti@unich.it.
authors.forename: Valentina
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Simonetti
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine and Aging Sciences, University of Chieti-Pescara, Italy. Electronic address: dania.comparcini@unich.it.
authors.forename: Dania
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Comparcini
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine and Aging Sciences, University of Chieti-Pescara, Italy. Electronic address: elena.flacco@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Maria Elena
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Flacco
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacy, University of Chieti-Pescara, Italy. Electronic address: p.digiovanni@unich.it.
authors.forename: Pamela
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Di Giovanni
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine and Aging Sciences, University of Chieti-Pescara, Italy; ASL 02 Abruzzo, Italy. Electronic address: g.cicolini@unich.it.
authors.forename: Giancarlo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Cicolini
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002983:Clinical Competence; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D005260:Female; D019983:Guideline Adherence; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy; D008297:Male; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D003668:Pressure Ulcer / Q000517:prevention & control*; D013338:Students, Nursing / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Attitude; Cross-sectional design; Guidelines; Knowledge; Nursing students; Pressure ulcer prevention