Imobile pt & bed leads to.....

[deetrain]

Is a pt more suceptible of getting contractures or bed sores if they lie on the bed for a long period of time?

[fuzzywuzzy, CNA]

Yes. That's why repositioning, ambulation (if possible), and ROM are so important (although you'll be hard-pressed to find a facility that has people do ROM). Lying around in bed doing nothing weakens muscles and impedes circulation, among other things.

[Dorali, BSN, LPN, RN]

Absolutely! Bed sores happen when a person is laying in one position for an extended amount of time, and it tends to happen in places that the bone is closer to the skin. Most of them are on the coccyx, but you also have to watch the heels, hips, elbows, back of the head, etc.

I went to a wound seminar with our treatment nurse back in April, and I learned that if you pull a person up in the bed, using a draw sheet, and raise the head of the bed up high enough, their skin will sort of stick to the sheet and the bones inside their body will shift downward which can cause a skin tear from the inside. Imagine a bunch of marbles inside of a bag laying flat. If you pick up the bag, all the marbles go to the bottom. Next time you turn a resident, look at their back. They will have red "scratch" marks, thin and a couple inches long. You should keep their head at about 30*.

Dondie