Pressure sores: the result of bad nursing?

For many years nurses have carried a burden of guilt for pressure sores as they are often felt to symbolize a failure of care and medical staff abdicate responsibility.

Abstract

For many years nurses have carried a burden of guilt for pressure sores as they are often felt to symbolize a failure of care. While medical staff abdicate responsibility, nurses tend to deny the problem: ‘We only have pressure sores here when the patient comes in with them’. Everyone is so keen to cast blame on everyone else that no one considers the actual cause of the sore.