Reduced mobility is a significant risk factor for pressure injury development, international guidelines emphasise the need for regular turning and repositioning of patients to help prevent skin damage¹. While a pressure redistribution mattress may enable the repositioning regimen to be individualised, regular postural change is still important but not without risk to the patient or caregiver.

The International Pressure Ulcer Prevention and Management Guidelines discuss how managing microclimate can provide an environment conducive to injury prevention and tissue repair. As such the guidelines recommend the need for additional features such as the ability to control moisture and temperature when selecting a support surface.

When designing a care environment, people – in this case residents in long-term care settings and patients in acute care settings, as well as the caregivers – should be at the centre of the entire process. This focus is essential to achieve an attractive and efficient environment that stands the test of time.

According to a 2016 report by the WHO, globally there are 650 million people that are obese accounting for approx. 13% of the world’s adult population.

Patient transfer tasks occur across multiple healthcare settings and are often high risk activities for both caregivers and patients. Risk of patient and staff injury has led to the development of global Safe Patient Handling programmes.

Pressure Injury Prevention during the pandemic: Prone Positioning Pressure Injury Prevention during the pandemic: Prone Positioning Preventing pressure injury while prone positioning patients. Prone position for prolonged periods of time places the patients at significant risk of complications including pressure injury. To mitigate this risk, selecting the right support surfaces to support pressure redistribution and targeted pressure offloading is key. Pressure injuries are