Preventing pressure injuries – meet the team

WDHB's pressure injury team.

Whanganui District Health Board is partnering with ACC to help people caring for family at home to understand what causes pressure injuries (also known as bed sores), how to recognise them at an early stage, and what to do about them.

The pressure injury team will be at Trafalgar Square, 100 Taupo Quay, Whanganui, from 10.30am – 2.30pm on Thursday 21 November, to talk to anyone who wants to find out more. The team includes nurse educators and a dietician who can help advise what foods to eat to keep healthy and aid healing. Read more.

Information about pressure injuries 

• Pressure injuries (also known as bedsores or pressure ulcers) are a preventable cause of harm affecting people of all ages receiving care in hospital, residential care and in the community.
• Pressure injuries usually develop over ‘bony’ parts of the body due to sustained pressure, or pressure combined with shear and/or friction. Those with decreased mobility and sensation are at increased risk.
• The effects of pressure injuries include pain, loss of function, reduced mobility, distress, prolonged treatment, septicaemia and even death.
• Pressure injuries reduce quality of life, delay recovery and have a significant impact on patients, their family/whānau and the health care system.

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