Background: Despite the fact that pressure ulcers are not a new phenomenon and due to the extensive research that has been conducted regarding the mechanisms of risk factors and prevention, pressure ulcers are still a major problem in health care.

Aim: To describe nurses' attitudes to the prevention of pressure ulcers.

Method: A study which is conducted as a literature study.

Results: Despite the fact that nurses are aware of the guidelines concerning both the prevention and the treatment of pressure ulcers as well as knowing that most pressure ulcers can be prevented, the guidelines tend not to be used in their daily clinical work. Nurses are of the opinion that pressure ulcer prevention is time consuming and see it as a task for nursing assistants. Pressure ulcers are therefore given a low priority and are deemed to be, not so interesting, as other nursing activities even though we know that knowledge is quite low. While the need for constant risk assessment and skin and ulcer status is obvious, these tasks are seldom performed and are rarely documented.

Training sessions with regard to wound treatment, and/or active participation in new methods of research will increase knowledge and compliance of guidelines. The main obstacles that nurses experience in pressure ulcer prevention are lack of time, lack of staff and lack of equipment. It is a well-known fact that pressure ulcers affect most patients, especially by inducing a reduced quality of life, pressure ulcers also enormously increase costs for the health care system.

Conclusions: Evidence-based guidelines are needed to assure the quality of pressure ulcer prevention. All nurses should be continuously offered training sessions to increase their knowledge about pressure ulcer prevention and increase their compliance of the guidelines.

Nurses' attitudes towards a clear prevention strategy must be improved and they must be made aware of their caring responsibilities.