title: Significant differences in nurses' knowledge of basic wound management - implications for treatment.
abstract: Wounds represent a growing healthcare problem due to an aging population. Nurses play a key role in wound management and their theoretical understanding of basic wound management may be expected to influence the quality of wound therapy fundamentally. In this study, we evaluated the level of knowledge of wound management in 136 Danish nurses working in 3 different settings: advanced wound care clinics, home care and general hospital departments. We found that hospital nurses had less theoretical knowledge than home care nurses and nurses working at advanced wound care clinics. We also found that the length of experience (adjusted for workplace and education) did not have any impact on nurses' knowledge. Nurses' knowledge of clinical investigations was consistently lower than their knowledge of therapy and clinical symptoms. This study provides benchmarking information about the current status of wound management in Denmark and suggests how improvements might be achieved.
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, Roskilde Hospital; and Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, DK-4000 Roskilde, Denmark. kian_zarchi@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Kian
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Zarchi
authors.forename: Seemab
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Latif
authors.forename: Vibeke B
authors.initials: VB
authors.lastname: Haugaard
authors.forename: Ida R C
authors.initials: IR
authors.lastname: Hjalager
authors.forename: Gregor B E
authors.initials: GB
authors.lastname: Jemec
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002983:Clinical Competence; D003718:Denmark; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006699:Home Care Services / Q000592:standards; D006769:Hospitals, General / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D016014:Linear Models; D024802:Nurse's Role; D064691:Nurses, Community Health / Q000523:psychology* / Q000592:standards; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital / Q000523:psychology* / Q000592:standards; D010044:Outpatient Clinics, Hospital / Q000592:standards; D058996:Quality Improvement; D019984:Quality Indicators, Health Care; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D000078329:Workforce; D014945:Wound Healing; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000451:nursing*