Abstract

More nurse training results in fewer pressure ulcers in German hospitals. When the number of nurses with at least three years of training increased, the incidence of hospital-acquired pressure ulcers fell in German hospitals, reports a study of 1,382 hospitals and 1.5 million patients in the December 2016 Nursing and Health Sciences. The number of nurses and physicians per 100 beds did not affect hospital-acquired pressure ulcer outcomes, nor did the number of beds, case volume, or teaching hospital status. A German nurse with three years of training is similar to an RN; few German nurses have university degrees. The results suggest that increasing the number of nurses with three years of training may lower ratios of observed to expected hospital-acquired pressure ulcer cases by up to 0.15 points.