Care Bundle for Prevention of Skin Complications and Edema in Restrained Patients

Physical restraint (restraint) is defined as the restriction of a patient's free body movements and the prevention of the patient's ability to move easily by healthcare professionals using physical or mechanical devices to prevent the patient from harming themselves or others. Physical restraints can be used by healthcare professionals for many purposes, particularly in intensive care units, such as ensuring patient safety, controlling aggressive and disruptive behavior, continuing patient care and treatment, and preventing the removal of medical equipment attached to the patient. However, when looking at the duration of physical restraint applications, it has been determined that they vary between 3-4 days. The longer the duration of physical restraint, the greater the likelihood of complications developing. In particular, long-term physical restraint can result in neurovascular and dermatological complications such as pressure injuries, edema, ecchymosis, redness, numbness, limited movement, increased temperature, discoloration, and nerve damage. The care package application is a model that improves patient care quality by simultaneously and comprehensively implementing 3-5 applications based on strong scientific evidence, prepared for the relevant area in the specified patient group. Care package applications are created to enable evidence-based practices outlined in guidelines to be used more effectively and practically in clinical settings. Within this context, the aim of this study is to develop a care package to prevent dermatological complications and edema that may occur in the restraint area in patients undergoing physical restraint in intensive care and to evaluate the effectiveness of this care package.