Welcome

Pressure ulcer prevention is part of ordinary daily care in care homes. It includes noticing who is spending too long in one position, protecting fragile skin from moisture and friction, following repositioning and equipment plans, checking comfort, and escalating early skin change before a small problem becomes avoidable harm.

This course is for care assistants, senior carers, support workers, team leaders, supervisors, night staff and other frontline care home staff in residential care homes and nursing homes. It is a carers' course, not a nursing or wound-specialist course. It does not replace local policy, clinical skin assessment, wound grading, dressing decisions, tissue viability advice or service-specific competency checks.

This is a UK-wide course. It uses NICE pressure-ulcer guidance and quality standards as the core clinical source, with England regulatory and care-home framework examples from CQC and NHS England where useful. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland share the same prevention principles, but use their own provider guidance, toolkits and referral routes, so staff must follow local policy as well as the core good practice covered here.

Why This Course Matters

• Pressure damage can build quietly: pain, warmth, discolouration or repeated redness may appear before the skin breaks.
• Carers see the day-to-day picture: time in bed, time in a chair, continence exposure, poor intake and sliding in bed are often noticed by frontline staff first.
• Small misses can add up: a damp pad, a flat cushion, missed repositioning or unclear handover can all matter.
• Good prevention protects dignity and comfort: residents should not have to live with avoidable pain or avoidable skin breakdown.
• Escalation matters: carers do not need to diagnose everything, but they do need to recognise change and get the right help involved quickly.

A Simple Prevention Spine

• Notice risk: reduced mobility, previous pressure damage, poor intake, illness, continence problems and long chair or bed time all matter.
• Check the skin: pain, discolouration, warmth, moisture and fragile areas should not be ignored.
• Follow the plan: support movement, repositioning, equipment use and skin care as agreed.
• Record clearly: describe what you saw, what was done and what changed.
• Escalate early: new breaks in skin, worsening signs, faulty equipment or unclear discharge plans need prompt action.