Every Move Matters: the hours a good mattress can’t cover

This year’s Stop the Pressure Week theme treats pressure ulcer prevention as a series of actions, shared by multi-disciplinary teams. We look at what that means in practice, and at our own four moves that matter.

A patient is assessed as being at high risk of pressure damage. The team keeps the skin checks up to date and puts a high-specification mattress on the bed.

Then someone asks how the patient spends the day. The answer is eight hours in an armchair by the window, and nobody has assessed the chair or the cushion on it.

The team did everything else well. They missed one move, which was to check the surface the patient sits on, and so a third of the patient’s day sat outside the care plan.

The Society of Tissue Viability has built this year’s Stop the Pressure Week around situations like this one. It has called the campaign Every Move Matters, and its point is that prevention is more than repositioning. Assessments, conversations, clinical decisions and changes to the patient’s surroundings as moves too.

The campaign also says prevention should not fall to nurses alone. Therapy colleagues help patients stay independent and keep moving, in the chair as well as in the bed. An occupational therapist may well have been the person who asked about the armchair.

aSSKINg works like a door code

The aSSKINg framework rests on the same idea. It has seven elements: assess risk, skin assessment and skin care, surface, keep moving, incontinence and moisture, nutrition and hydration, and giving information.

Think of a seven-digit door code. Enter six digits correctly and the door stays shut. A high-specification mattress can’t make up for a missed skin check, or for a meal the patient couldn’t manage to eat.

The National Wound Care Strategy Programme’s version of the framework shows how far each element reaches. Surface, covers; chairs, cushions, wheelchairs and in-vehicle systems as well as beds and mattresses. The framework also asks teams to weigh equipment against independence, because a surface that protects the skin can still hold someone back if it stops them moving by themselves.

Keep moving covers more than the turn chart. It asks about posture, daily activities, mood and social contact. Nutrition takes in practical questions, such as whether the person can manage the cutlery in front of them.

In busy practice, single moves get missed. An audit of 150 patient records in one community nursing service in south-east England found that compliance with the framework was poor overall, with only two of the audited criteria met. The audit covered one service and the records date from 2021, so it can’t speak for the whole NHS, but it does show how easily the small steps slip.

Our four moves that matter

The clinical moves belong to the people who see the patient every day, such as tissue viability nurses, occupational therapists, ward and community teams, and carers. As pressure area care and support surface manufacturers, our part is to make those moves easier.

Apollo Healthcare Technologies is proud to support this year’s Stop the Pressure Week campaign, and these are the four moves that matter most in our own work to support both clinical teams and patients.

Support

Some situations can be more complex than others. We are there to help clinical teams when that happens. From solution finding to pressure mapping, equipment trials and ongoing educational and product training.

Collaboration

We work with clinical teams to find a solution that works for individual patients and develop our pressure area care range, which covers pressure area care mattresses and cushions as well as beds, ensuring that our solutions are built for real-time clinical challenges.

Innovation

As a specialist medical equipment manufacturer, we can tailor our pressure care mattresses, cushions and contracture pads to the needs of individuals. We develop our product range alongside the clinicians who ask for them. 

Education

We support clinical teams with pressure ulcer reduction education and initiatives, as well as product training. You can read our latest case study about how we have supported Leeds Teaching Hospitals here.

“Apollo Healthcare Technologies consistently demonstrates professionalism, responsiveness and a genuine commitment to improving patient outcomes. They are a valued partner in supporting our wards and clinical teams to deliver safe, effective and person-centred care.”

Lisa Hill, Tissue Viability Nurse, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust

 

Your move

Start with our Every Move Matters quiz. It has six questions on SSKIN and aSSKINg and it takes a few minutes. If you have read this far, you already know the answer to question three. 

The Society of Tissue Viability is running free online events during Stop the Pressure Week. Its campaign hub also has blogs and films, along with resources you can use at any time of year. Visit the Stop the Pressure hub.

We would like to hear which move makes the biggest difference where you work. Tell us on LinkedIn, or join the wider conversation at #EveryMoveMatters and #StopThePressure.

If you have a patient whose needs aren’t being met by the equipment available, please contact us on (0)1924 614567 or email info@apollo-ht.co.uk. 

 

References

Society of Tissue Viability (2026) Stop the Pressure 2026: Every Move Matters. https://societyoftissueviability.org/community/stop-the-pressure-2026/

National Wound Care Strategy Programme (2023) The aSSKINg Framework. https://www.nationalwoundcarestrategy.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/The-aSSKINg-Framework.pdf

Martin S, Holloway S (2024) Pressure ulcers: a clinical audit to determine compliance against the aSSKINg framework in an adult community nursing setting. British Journal of Community Nursing 29(Sup9): S28–S34. https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/185093