Authors (including presenting author) :
Mak HN(1), But SY(1), Leung SY(1), Ng KS(2), Kwok MY(3), Tong SY(1), Ng WY(1), Shit FKY(1), Chui ST(1).
Affiliation :
(1)Department of Surgery, Prince of Wales Hospital, (2)Department of Surgery, Alice Ho Miu Ling Nethersole Hospital,(3)Department of Medicine and Geriatrics, Tai Po Hospital
Introduction :
Venous Leg Ulcers (VLUs) is a chronic disease with high recurrence rate. The cost of treating VLUs is high and the healing process takes up to months. Therefore, the prevention of VLUs is very important. The major management of preventing VLUs from recurring involves the use of compression stockings in conjunction with a series of lifestyle behavioral modifications. In order to enhance patients’ knowledge on VLUs preventive measures, a patient education program was developed since September, 2019. Training was delivered to all patient before they were discharged from the Vascular Wound Care Clinic, PWH.
Objectives :
(1)To enhance patients’ knowledge on preventive measures of VLUs recurrence.
(2)To promote patients’ confidence in self-care after their VLUs healed.
Methodology :
The patient education program consisted of a personal discharge advice session with an educational booklet, which was delivered to patients upon their discharge from Vascular Wound Care Clinic. The content of the advice session, in accordance with the booklet context, covered the risk factors leading to VLUs, the proper use of compression stockings as well as a series of self-care recommendations to prevent VLUs recurrence. In the process, patients were encouraged to give feedback, clarify concepts, and perform return demonstration on compression stockings wearing and leg exercises. Patients were assessed for knowledge acquisition via pre and post multiple choice questionnaires with telephone follow up. Moreover, a satisfaction survey of the education program was conducted to collect patients’ opinions for future review and enhancement.
Result & Outcome :
From December, 2019 to March, 2020, totally 6 discharge advice sessions were provided to 6 patients with VLUs healed. Patients’ age ranged from 53 to 86. All of them showed significant knowledge improvement on risk factors of VLUs and prevention of recurrence with pre-tests’ mean score 6.5 increased to 9.8 at post-test. Regarding patients’ satisfaction of the program, they all agreed that the discharge advice session’s content was clear, and the booklet was useful as a self-care reference. To conclude, the patient education programme was shown to be effective in enhancing patients’ knowledge and confidence in self-care for prevention of VLUs recurrence. Patients were also found to be satisfied with the arrangement of the programme. The outcome of declining VLUs recurrence rate is believed to emerge in the program in long run.
