Pressure sores are among the most common complications of immobility, and among the most avoidable. Tissue begins to break down where bone presses skin against a mattress — the tailbone, the heels, the hips, the shoulder blades — and damage can start within two hours of an unchanged position.
The single most effective intervention is repositioning: turning the patient every two hours, day and night, and using pillows to keep bony points off the surface. This is unglamorous, relentless work, and it is the reason families exhaust themselves within a fortnight of trying to do it alone.
Beyond turning: keep skin clean and completely dry, particularly after toileting. Check the pressure points every single day in good light and press gently — skin that stays red after pressure is released is the first warning, and it is the last easy stage.
Nutrition matters more than most families expect. Protein and fluids do a substantial share of the work of keeping skin intact, and a patient who is eating poorly will develop sores faster whatever else you do.
If you see broken skin, an open area, or redness that does not fade, that is a nursing matter rather than an attendant one. Call it early. A stage-one sore is a routine problem; a stage-three sore is months of dressings.