Literature review on mapping technologies used to prevent HAPUs
Hospital-acquired ulcers have been a great challenge for patients who have been admitted to hospitals, especially in the ICUs. This aspect has been associated with the fact that such patients cannot change their sleeping positions due to their unconscious states and lack of control of their motor receptions. Due to this reason, the situation has caused a lot of effects on the patients, which have made pressure ulcers to be a significant concern in the medical setting. To prevent this situation, various measures have been developed to ensure that the casecase is managed. The use of technology has enabled the development of mapping technologies that have been used in different hospitals leading to the development of various changes in the situation.
The use of pressure mapping technologies as a prevention measure for HAPUs has influenced different researchers to examine the various aspects associated with the technologies. In the process, various questions have been raised on the subject leading to the development of different views. A research by Walia and other scholars sought to examine the effectiveness of the efficiency of the monitoring devices in the process of determining the risk of patients developing pressure ulcers in the medical setting. Another study by Angela Becker sought to examine how the implementation of pressure ulcer tool kits together with automated patient repositions influenced the rate at which patients acquired pressure ulcers in ten weeks’ time. Khalegi on the other hand tried to examine how the process of equipping hospital beds with wireless sensor networks enabled the prevention of pressure ulcers. The use of technology in the hospitals is considered as a great measure in the prevention of pressure ulcers. Another research undertaken by Renganathan and other scholars took the study to a deeper level as they examine the effects of patient position monitoring system in improving the hospital turn protocol. As the other researchers undertook the studies to examine how effective the mapping technologies are, Bader and Worsley examined the available technologies and how such technologies were used in the hospital setting to prevent pressure ulcers.
In the various studies, the scholars have utilized different sample sized to draw their conclusions. The research by Walia and his colleagues utilized data from the different hospital databases such as CINAHL and PubMed/MEDLINE to base their study. This aspect utilized the meta-analysis approach due to the large data involved to draw their conclusions. Becker on the other hand, utilized 20 inpatient beds to obtain the data in the southern medical hospital. The review by Khalegi also utilized data from the library and medical databases such as PubMed, SCOPUS and EMBASE which contain medical information about aspects happening in the medical setting. Also, the research utilized data obtained from different researches by other scholars on the subject which were conducted in the years 1974-2014. And lastly, Renganathan and his colleagues utilized a sample of 45 ICU patients who were admitted in two ICU units. The study was undertaken in two phases where each phase was undertaken in the two ICU units with the number of patients being 20 and 25 in the two phases respectively. The variation of the sample size is based on the nature of the research questions being addressed.
In the examination of the different research literature on the aspect of effect of mapping technology used in the prevention of hospital acquired pressure ulcers, various limitations are observed. One of the limitations is the availability of biased data. This aspect is associated with the use of data from different databases and other research on the subject. This aspect may be subjected to assumptions and this may greatly affect the outcome of the study. Another limitation is the lack of resources which is associated with experimentation process. In this case, the limited access to the hospitals with mapping technology might influence the data obtained. Also the aspect may not give an effective view of the effects of mapping technology due to the limited data available. Confidentiality is also another aspect limiting the study as the various hospitals may not want to disclose the information about their patients due to the ethical aspects in the medical profession.
In conclusion, the review of the literature on the effects of mapping technology in preventing hospital acquired pressure ulcers is very important. This provides information on existing data about the subject and the various perceived by the scholars who worked on the subject. Also, the aspect enables a scholar to examine the various shortcomings associated with such types of research and enable them to prepare on how to deal with the challenges associated. In this case, the process of reviewing literature is a very constructive practice as it provides guidance on how to conduct a study and a basis to compare results leading to the development of new literature. Therefore, I would recommend effective accumulation of resources to enable to success of the study. Also, I would recommend seeking early approval in the various institutions one needs to undertake the study to avoid unnecessary disappointments associated with time constrains in the process of undertaking research.