Attitudes towards pressure ulcer prevention: a psychometric evaluation of the Swedish version of the APuP instrument.

The primary aim was to conduct a psychometric evaluation of the Attitude towards Pressure ulcer Prevention (APuP) instrument in a Swedish context. A further aim was to describe and compare attitudes towards pressure ulcer prevention between registered nurses (RNs), assistant nurses (ANs) and student nurses (SNs). In total, 415 RNs, ANs and SNs responded to the questionnaire. In addition to descriptive and comparative statistics, confirmatory factor analyses were performed. Because of a lack of support for the instrument structure, further explorative and consecutive confirmatory tests were conducted. Overall, positive attitudes towards pressure ulcer prevention were identified for all three groups, but SNs reported lower attitude scores on three items and a higher score on one item compared to RNs and ANs. The findings indicated no support in this Swedish sample for the previously reported five-factor model of APuP. Further explorative and confirmative factor analyses indicated that a four-factor model was most interpretable: (i) Priority (five items), (ii) Competence (three items), (iii) Importance (three items) and (iv) Responsibility (two items). The five-factor solution could not be confirmed. Further research is recommended to develop a valid and reliable tool to assess nurses' attitudes towards pressure ulcer prevention working across different settings on an international level.