Abstract
BackgroundNurses form the largest professional group in health care, and they spend most of their working day on their feet. From the perspective of work well-being, healthy feet are important to tolerate the physical demands of nursing work. However, little is known about how nurses’ foot self-care practices can be promoted with computerised interventions. The aim of this study was two-fold: to explore the preliminary effects of the electronic Foot Health Promotion Programme (FHPP) on foot self-care in nurses and to examine the usability of the programme.MethodsA single group pretest-posttest design was used. The FHPP was targeted at nurses working in the operating theatre. The FHPP lasted for 4 weeks and focused on improving nurses’ knowledge and awareness of foot self-care through self-directed learning tasks. The primary outcome was knowledge of foot self-care. The secondary outcomes were foot health and work ability. Thirty-seven participants completed the study. The outcomes were assessed at baseline (April–June 2017) and 4 weeks (August–September 2017) after the intervention ended. The data were analysed statistically.ResultsParticipants’ knowledge of foot self-care and foot health improved; however, the changes were not statistically significant. The FHPP was considered to be usable and has potential as a tool to increase knowledge of foot self-care among nurses.ConclusionsThe FHPP developed in this study is a newly developed potential tool to increase nurses’ knowledge of foot self-care. Application of the FHPP as part of occupational health care may enhance nursing personnel’s foot self-care and lower extremity health.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov NCT03116451, 17.4.2017.
Highlights
Nurses form the largest professional group in health care, and they spend most of their working day on their feet
Most of the participants believed that foot health had a large impact on their work (60%)
Some improvement was achieved in the total score level for knowledge of foot self-care (Table 3)
Summary
Nurses form the largest professional group in health care, and they spend most of their working day on their feet. From the perspective of work well-being, healthy feet are important to tolerate the physical demands of nursing work. Little is known about how nurses’ foot self-care practices can be promoted with computerised interventions. The aim of this study was two-fold: to explore the preliminary effects of the electronic Foot Health Promotion Programme (FHPP) on foot self-care in nurses and to examine the usability of the programme. Foot self-care (caring for one’s own feet) is important for maintaining and improving foot health and, in turn, general health. Nursing is physically demanding, including situations in which nurses’ feet are exposed to stress for long periods in their daily work environment. Studies focusing on supporting and improving nurses’ foot health are limited [4]
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