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Living with Your Pressure Injury

A Guide for Patients and Caregivers

This guide is for you, our patient, and any caregivers who may be involved in your care.

This guide explains how we can help you to help your Pressure Injury. It is full of information to help you to understand what it going on with yoru body when you have a wound and what your body needs to heal the wound or, if it can't heal, to feel better. 

I have a Pressure Injury. What is that?

Your doctor or nurse has determined that your wound is a ‘pressure injury’.

A pressure injury is an area on the skin or deeper where tissue has been damaged. It can happen when you stay in one position too long. The constant pressure can stop the blood and oxygen supply and create damage. 

Pressure injuries usually happen over bony prominences when the skin gets pinched between the surface you are on and your bones, cutting off your circulation.

You might have also heard them called a bedsore or pressure sore.

How did I get this Pressure Injury?

A pressure injury can happen when you are immobile for a prolonged period of time. lt can happen from sliding down in bed multiple times a day, from being dragged across a surface when transferring in and out of bed, or from a medical device like a tube or cast pinching your skin and cutting off the circulation.

Your nurse will assess you and your pressure injury and then talk to you about the plan to help your pressure injury heal. If you have a wound below the knee, you may have a test done to determine if your circulation is adequate for healing.

Pressure injuries cannot heal unless the pressure that caused the wound is relieved. Try to avoid positioning on any red or open area. It is important to turn, lift or change your position often. How often depends on your condition. Your body should be lifted to make a position change and should not be dragged.

Things I Can Do To Help My Pressure Injury Get Better

Activity

• I will be as active as I can be. 

Repositioning in a Chair or Wheelchair

• If I am in a wheelchair, and my wound is on the area where I sit, I will ask for a wheelchair assessment by an Occupational Therapist and ask for a specialized cushion to help me offload pressure from the wound.
• If I don’t already have one, I will look into a “tilt in space” wheel chair that will allow me to be positioned off my wound.
• I will try and shift my weight every 15 minutes when sitting and I will change my position every hour.
• I I will use a footrest or footstool to support my feet so there is less pressure behind my knees. 
• I will try to limit the amount of time I am up in the wheelchair to one hour, 3 times per day, until my pressure injury is healed.
• I won’t use a donut cushion under my pressure injury as it will increase local pressure.

Repositioning in Bed

• I will try and ensure that there are no wrinkles under me on my bedding that cause new injuries.
• I will ask my caregivers to use lift sheets and lifting devices so that I am not dragged over the sheets.
• I will position the head of the bed so I do not slide down in the bed.
• I will use pillows to help position my legs and support my body while lying on my side.
• I will use a pad to elevate my heels off the bed.
• I will use bed rails or a trapeze to help me change my position.

Daily Skin Check and Skin Care

• Every day I will check my skin, or ask my caregiver to check my skin, for areas of redness, or open areas over bony places like heels, ankles, knees, hips, back, elbows and head.
• I will use a skin moisturizer to hydrate my dry skin in order to reduce the risk of skin damage.
• I will not massage any reddened areas of skin as this may increase the risk of pressure injury

Preventing the Skin from Getting Wet

Moisture happens when the skin gets wet from bowel or bladder leakage or from sweating. Moisture can weaken skin and can cause your skin to break down.

• I will keep my skin clean and dry.
• I will use a pH balanced cleanser on my skin.
• I will change my sheets or bandages when they get wet (or I will ask my caregiver to change them).
• If I am incontinent of urine or of bowel movement, I will clean my skin right away or I will ask my caregiver to clean my skin.
• I will use a barrier product on my skin to protect it from urine or bowel movements.