National Pressure Ulcer Long-Term Care Study
The article nutritional therapy in the prevention and treatment of pressure ulcers analyzes the causes of pressure ulcers and hoe hospitals and other health care facilities find it hard to care for patients having pressure ulcers. The challenges people face when treating pressure ulcers have forced then to shift from treating the ulcers to preventing the ulcers. Nutrition plays an important role in preventing pressure ulcers. First, nutrition helps in the healing of the wound and this makes it easy to prevent pressure ulcers. Pressure ulcers are caused by lack of proper diet and also dehydration. They are also caused by loss of weight. Though people do not know the exact amount of food to take so as to heal the wound, the intake of energy proteins, zinc and vitamins has been effective in reducing the rate of pressure ulcers among patients. The study involved null and alternative hypothesis. The null hypothesis was aimed at determining whether nutrition helps in prevention of pressure ulcers. Also, the alternative hypothesis was aimed at determining whether nutrition does not help in the prevention of pressure ulcers. The research questions included. The importance of oral and enteral nutrition in prevention of pressure ulcers. Another question is what amount of nutrition is effective in preventing pressure ulcers (Crowe & Brockbank, 2009).
The researcher is quantitative as the researcher used statistical methods to analyze the data collected from the experiments. In addition, the researcher used observation method to carry out the research. In this case, the researcher observed the elderly patients who had been subjected to different types of foods. There are dependent and independent variables in the study. An independent variable is a variable that affects or is used to determine the independent variable. The variable can be changed according to the researchers wish. The independent variable in the study is nutrition. That is proteins, Arginine, vitamins beds.The dependent variable is the prevention of pressure ulcers. The prevention of the pressure ulcers depends on nutrition. The study does not give any definition of an independent variable. In addition, the article does not give any definition of dependent variable (Crowe & Brockbank, 2009).
Moreover, the author does not give an operational definition of any independent variable and dependent variable. In operational definition of a variable, the variable is defined according to the process. The study shows that a relationship was studied. For instance, the author studied the relation between nutrition and pressure ulcers. The findings from the relationship showed that nutrition helps in the prevention of pressure ulcers. Also, the author determines the right amounts of Agrinine, proteins and micronutrients that are needed to prevent pressure ulcers. The findings showed that an intake of 30-35 Kcal per body weight and 1-1.5g of protein daily prevented pressure ulcers. It also showed that 5-6 g per day of Agrinine was effective in preventing pressure ulcers.
The findings from the study showed that proper nutrition at the right amount can help prevent pressure wounds as stated above. The author could have examined the physical condition of the patient and how it affects the outcome. Proper physical condition speeds up the healing of wounds. He should also have examined the emotional condition of the patients as emotions affect the healing of wounds. He could also have examined the effects of drugs on prevention of pressure ulcers (Crowe & Brockbank, 2009).
In the second article, the author examined the prevalence of pressure ulcers in patients leaving in long tern care residents. Pressure ulcers are common among patients leaving in long term care residents. Patients having pressure ulcers have low quality of life. Pressure ulcers affect movement of the patents and also increase deaths. The hypothesis was to identify resident features that are linked with pressure ulcers among patients living in long term care residents. Also, the researcher identified the treatment characteristics and facility features that are linked with pressure ulcers in this population. The research questions were as follows (Horn, Bender &Ferguson, 2004).
What is the link between treatment features and pressure ulcers in this population?
What is the link between various characteristics of the facility and pressure ulcers?
What is the connection between resident characteristics and pressure ulcers?
The study is quantitative as the author has used statistical methods to analyze data collected. There are dependent and independent variables in the study. The independent variables include the characteristics of the residents, the characteristics of the treatment and the characteristics of the facility. The dependent variable is pressure ulcers. The author has provided conceptual definition of independent variables and also the operation definition. For instance, the definition of the resident characteristic variable is based on the age of the participants used in the study. Moreover, the treatment characteristic variable is defined according to the kind of treatment provided. For instance, nutritional treatment. The nutritional treatment includes dietary treatment and oral standard treatment etc. The facility characteristics are defined according to the availability of staff to nurse the wounds etc. In addition, the article provided an operational and conceptual definition to the dependent variable. The pressure ulcers were defined according to the assessment of the medical records. The author assigned an abstractor to each pressure ulcers to distinguish it from other pressure ulcers in the same place (Horn, Bender &Ferguson, 2004).
The article shows a relationship was studied. For instance, the author studied the connection between facility characteristics like staffing and pressure ulcers. Also, the author studied the relationship between treatment characteristics and the pressure ulcers. The author studied the relationship between the characteristics of the resident and the pressure ulcers. The author could have studied other factors like physical characteristics of the resident, emotional features of the resident and also social support. The factors affect the outcome of the pressure ulcers in deferent ways. For instance, poor physical health can affect the outcome negatively and vice versa. On the other hand, emotions affect the healing of pressure wounds. The kind of social support one gets determines the outcome of the pressure ulcers (Horn, Bender &Ferguson, 2004).The findings from the study showed that 71% of the residents did not get pressure ulcers during the first 12 weeks while 29% did. The findings also showed that the characteristics of the residents, treatment and facility were linked with high risk for pressure ulcers (Horn, Bender &Ferguson, 2004).
Reference
Horn,S.,Bender,S.A.,&Ferguson,M.L. et al (2004).The National Pressure Ulcer Long-Term Care Study. Pressure Ulcer Development in Long-Term Care Residents .American genetric society.
Crowe,T .,& Brockbank .,C.(2009).Nutrition therapy in the prevention and treatment of pressure ulcers.Wound practice and research,vol 17.
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