title: The role of the wound care nurse: an integrative review.
abstract: The role of the wound care nurse has developed to meet the need for expert wound care advice. Internationally, the role has developed with a variety of different titles. Although all positions have some common tasks and obligations, there remain gaps in knowledge around the role of the wound care nurse. This article aims to determine the state of knowledge in relation to the context of practice, scope of practice and impact of the wound care nurse. An integrative review design was used to allow a broad search strategy and to gather papers from a variety of sources. A multi-method search strategy of the literature published between 1980-2011 was undertaken. This included 5 electronic databases, a thesis search and manual search. It was found that the characteristics of the patients wound care nurses care for reflect an ageing population and disease processes, including diabetes and obesity. Internationally, there is little consensus on the level of competence, educational requirements and qualifications required to practise as a wound care nurse. There was some evidence that the wound care nurse improved healing times and decreased pressure injury prevalence.
authors.affiliation: Sydney Nursing School, University of Sydney, Australia, St George Hospital, NSW Australia.
authors.forename: Matthew
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dutton
authors.affiliation: Sydney Nursing School, University of Sydney, Australia.
authors.forename: Mary
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Chiarella
authors.affiliation: Sydney Nursing School, University of Sydney, Australia, St George Hospital, NSW Australia, The George Institute for Global Health, St George Clinical School, Faculty of Medicine, University of NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: Kate
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Curtis
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D024802:Nurse's Role; D017592:Skin Care / Q000451:nursing*; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000451:nursing*