Authors (including presenting author) :
Vincey Tam (1), Anna Wong (1), Peggy Cheng (2)
Affiliation :
(1) Department of Medicine, Yan Chai Hospital
(2) Central Nursing Division, Yan Chai Hospital
Introduction :
Pressure ulcer remains a significant problem in the healthcare system (Igarashi et al, 2013; Pieper, 2012). It is primarily the nurses’ responsibility to assess, document and providing management of pressure ulcers. Some studies found that nurses rely on their knowledge and experience rather than research evidence to decide what wound care to deliver (Aydogan & Caliskan, 2019; Ebi et al, 2019; Gul et al, 2017). Moreover, the competence required performing wound care assessment and management is context-dependent, incorporating the nurse's ability, the task to be performed and the setting in which it is encountered. Therefore, Clinical exposure can facilitate a good opportunity for nurses to experience the actual situation of wound management.
Objectives :
1. To enhance the link nurses’ knowledge and skills in wound
assessment, management and documentation.
2. To share advanced wound care practice and experience
3. To strengthen the competent of participants in wound management.
Methodology :
1. An assessment form with 10 questions was developed to assess
nurses’ knowledge and competence in wound care at the pre-course
and post-course period. Any correct items will score one mark.
2. The participants were asked to complete a 5-Likert scales
questionnaire on the overall comment to the program after the one-
day exposure was committed.
Result & Outcome :
From February to May 2019, a total of 13 nos. of Pressure Injury link nurses from medical wards were recruited into the program. All of them are female; more than half of the participants (54%) had more than 10 years of clinical experience in nursing and nearly half of them claimed that they had attended various kinds of wound care training
Among the 10 items of knowledge assessment, the higher correct answers belong to the basic wound care 5 items, meanwhile the lower scores of correct answers found under the classification of advanced wound care 4 items at pre-assessment. The results illustrated that some of the participants were lack of advanced wound care knowledge due to limited exposure and experience in the clinical situation. All participants scored the average above the mean score 5/10.
The post-assessments indicated a significant increase in wound care knowledge of the participants after the clinical exposure program. Eight out of ten questions got full marks and the mean score of all participants increased from 7.6/10 to 9.6/10 in the post-course assessment. It was an encouraging result that there were a significant improvement and change of nurses in their wound management by an objective evaluation. Moreover, even some suggestions to increase the duration of clinical exposure from 1 day to 2-3 days were received.
Some of the participants reported favorable outcomes as a result of this observational experience in questionnaire; the overall satisfaction score is 4.69 /5. The “participants felt CEP is practical for use in the workplace” and “recommend it to their colleague” had the mean score 4.77 out of 5; “the participants felt CEP help to increase their skills regarding wound assessment, documentation and management” had a mean score of 4.85 out of 5. On the other hand, “the participants felt the duration of CEP is appropriate” had a mean score of 4.62 / 5. The result indicated most of the participants get confidence in wound management upon completion of CEP. Thus, they would likely to act as the link nurse leader on the wound assessment and management in a diverse ward setting, such as acute medical wards, rehabilitation wards & infirmary ward.
