For Stop the Pressure Week, Melica, a Registered Nurse Team Leader at the Hospice, shares her personal experience of developing a pressure ulcer during a stay in hospital.
“As a nurse in my early 60s who chases after her grandchildren, I’ve always considered myself fit and healthy. I also thought my knowledge of pressure ulcers was pretty good. As nurses, we spend our days preventing, examining, documenting and treating them. I never imagined I’d be the one to get one.
“Two years ago, I was admitted to hospital for planned surgery. My consultant said I’d be in for a week and off work for three months however, things didn’t go to plan. Post-surgery complications led to eight weeks in hospital and, just as I began to feel slightly better, I noticed a tingling at the top of my sacrum. Over the next couple of days, a more uncomfortable feeling developed and that’s when I realised – I had a pressure ulcer.
“Every time I moved in bed it was painful and trying to sit in a chair was unbearable. I tried to lie on my side, but post-op pain and a drain made that difficult. I felt embarrassed and frustrated with myself for not preventing it and ashamed that, as a nurse, I hadn’t seen it coming. It didn’t take long before a nurse noticed what was going on and asked if my sacrum was sore. I admitted that I’d been battling with it for the past few days and that it was extremely painful. It was a relief to say it out loud.
“What followed was a flurry of activity – measurements, creams, students observing, and a new air mattress ordered. When it arrived, it inflated loudly in the middle of the bay. Visitors squeezed past it and patients were asking what it was doing there. I felt myself sinking under my blanket, pretending this was nothing to do with me, until two nurses helped me onto a chair, exchanged the beds and helped me back onto the new bed. The mattress hummed constantly. One patient complained she wouldn’t be able to sleep. I was so embarrassed.
“The mattress was hard to adjust to. It moved constantly, making it difficult to find a stable position. Every shift caused noise. One night, the mattress alarm wouldn’t stop ringing, so the nurses turned it off. By morning, the mattress had deflated and I felt like I was lying on a table.
“12 weeks after admission, I went home to family, to quiet and to a normal mattress. The Grade 2 ulcer had been painful and made me miserable. My mood was so low. I’d felt so embarrassed that I hadn’t been able to prevent it myself. But I now understand it was part of being very unwell and I now know how easily they can occur, even with the best care. I’ll never underestimate their impact again.
“As I left the ward, I passed a poster titled, how to prevent pressure ulcers – it made me smile.”
