Retrospective Speculation and Responsibility in Pressure Ulcer Prevention in the United Kingdom’s National Health Service

In the UK's National Health Service pressure ulcers are considered mostly avoidable, but they develop in large numbers. This problem is hard to resolve, due to uncertainty around which particular (in)actions caused the ulcer. I argue that hospital staff's practices of navigating this uncertainty are based on "retrospective speculation": the practice of assessing the past to anticipate and intervene on the future. In contrast to dominant narratives that frame pressure ulcers as failure, I argue that "retrospective speculation" provides space for hospital staff to reassess where responsibility for prevention lies in the context of high pressures on the health service.