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Te Puawai Pressure Injuries Article Supplied by: Dr Jan Weststrate History Pressure injuries have been around for many years. The oldest pressure injury wound that we know of dates back to 1000 BC and was discovered by Thomson Rowling on the mummy of an Egyptian priest (Rowling, 1961). The Dutch surgeon Frabicus Hildanus described for the first time in 1593 the clinical characteristics of a pressure injury which he called at that time “Gangraene” (Defloor, 1999). At a later stage (1777) Wohlleben added the word decubitus to and called it “gangrene per decubitus” (tissue necrosis by laying down) (Bouten, 1996). In his opinion, the three most contributing factor in the development of pressure injuries were: natural external factors, supernatural internal factor and interruption in the blood supply. From a nursing perspective Florence Nightingale was the first nurse that we know of that commented on the role that nurses have in the prevention of pressure injuries. In her famous book “ notes on nursing she writes; “If he (the patient) has a bed sore, it is generally the fault not of the disease, but of nursing” (Nightingale, 1860). She was also aware that having a pressure injury is a serious condition as she writes. “another who cannot move himself may die of bed-sores”. Overtime these statements have been used to blame nurses for the development of pressure injuries which is of course a very one sided view on the topic (Zuelzer, 2011). In the last twenty five years it has become evident that most pressure injuries can be prevented (Black et al., 2011). Registered nurses and health care assistants as frontline staff play a pivotal role in this. The question is whether the healthcare system allows them to provide the care clients need to prevent the development of pressure injuries? With an increased fragmentation of care providers and increased pressure on reduced staffing levels the “acute” often triumphs over the “long term” priorities”. Pressure injuries as a Nurse sensitive indicator Pressure injuries are regarded as a nurse sensitive indicator in the literature (Heslop & Lu, 2014). There are several definitions provided for nurse sensitive indicator or surrogated terms (Outcome indicators, nursing performance indicators, patient safety indicators and outcomes potentially sensitive to nursing). For this article I use the definition given by the National Quality Forum (2004) (Heslop & Lu, 2014). “A nurse sensitive performance measure as processes and outcomes-and structural proxies for these processes and outcomes( e.g. Skill mix, and staffing hours) that are affected, provided and / or influenced by nursing personnel but for which is nursing not exclusively responsible”. © Te Puawai College of Nurses Aotearoa (NZ) Inc 3