An educational partnership to enhance evidence-based wound care

Abstract

This article describes an educational initiative that aimed to raise the knowledge and practice of nurses at one hospital where staff had become deskilled in wound care. An audit questionnaire was used to determine nurses' knowledge before and 4 months after an educational workshop, part of which considered pain issues. Following the educational initiative, nurses within the Trust were knowledgeable about when to take a wound swab and could recognize the signs of wound infection, but there were still issues around the clinical practice of taking a wound swab. Conversely, their use of descriptors of tissue type to justify dressing choice was improved. Analgesia was commonly given to address previous uncomfortable dressing changes, but there was no mention of pain assessment. When a product had adhered to the wound bed, many nurses advocated soaking to aid removal. This has limited efficacy, but few nurses advocated using an alternative dressing on subsequent occasions. These results suggest that 4 months may be too short a time to fully evaluate whether a single educational workshop is sufficient to sustain change in an organization. An ongoing competency-based programme has been implemented.