Competence areas for registered nurses and podiatrists in chronic wound care, and their role in wound care practice

Abstract

Aims and objectives To identify general competence areas for graduating registered nurses and podiatrists providing chronic wound care. Background The provision of care for chronic wounds involves a team of multiple professionals, and registered nurses and podiatrists play an important role. However, previous studies have found that registered nurses have limited competence in wound care. In addition, there are no standardised international competence areas for the provision of chronic wound care by registered nurses and podiatrists. Design A qualitative design was used in this study. Methods The data were collected using six focus‐group interviews with the following professionals: (a) registered nurses; (b) authorised wound care nurses; (c) nurse educators; (d) physicians; (e) podiatrists; and (f) podiatry educators (N = 23). The data were analysed using inductive and deductive content analysis. COREQ guidelines were followed, See Appendix S1. Results The competence areas for registered nurses and podiatrists providing care for chronic wounds include knowledge, skills and performance in anatomy and physiology; aetiology, care and prevention of chronic wounds; and wound management and assessment. The competence areas also include a set of attitudes and values relating to chronic wound care and patients with chronic wounds. Conclusions In nursing and podiatry education and in working life, teaching should focus on these areas of competence in chronic wound care. This would standardise and integrate education on wound care, especially that of chronic wounds. Relevance to clinical practice Wound care is an important part of clinical practice in nursing and podiatry. It is suggested that registered nurses and podiatrists need general competence in chronic wound care to carry out evidence‐based, safe, high‐quality and cost‐effective care. These results could be used to define registered nurses’ and podiatrists’ competence areas and roles in evidence‐based wound care as independent healthcare professionals.

Prevalence and factors associated with ulcer‐related pain in persons with chronic leg ulcers—an explorative study

“…While there are differences in nurses’ legislated scope of practice across nations and continents, nurses have an overall responsibility to ensure that persons experiencing pain are adequately assessed and provided with effective pain management (American Nurses Association, 2018). Furthermore, pain assessment and management are identified as a main category of the ‘wound management and assessment’ area for registered nurses providing care for chronic wounds (Kielo et al, 2019). However, wound care researchers report that persistent ulcer‐related pain is either dismissed by healthcare providers or inappropriately assessed (Frescos, 2018; Green et al, 2018).…”

The development and testing of the C/WoundComp instrument for assessing chronic wound‐care competence in student nurses and podiatrists

“…These areas were further divided into specific competences, such as asepsis, wound dressings, and nutrition. Values and attitudes were divided into care, prevention, evidence‐based practice, holistic care, respect, and economics 24 …”

“…The purpose is to describe the level of competence among graduating student nurses and podiatrists in Finland compared with that of the professionals and to develop and test a new instrument (the C/WoundComp) that assesses both theoretical and practical competence in chronic wound care. Graduating student podiatrists are studied as a comparison group alongside student nurses because their roles and competence requirements are similar to those of nurses providing chronic wound care, 24 but there are substantially fewer podiatry students and professionals than nursing students and professionals in Finland, which makes reliable comparisons difficult. Registered nurses and podiatrists are studied as the “gold standard” groups in the psychometric testing of the developed instrument.…”

“…There are some wound‐care competence requirements for specialised wound‐care nurses and postgraduate nurses, 21‐23 but there are no international, general, or standardised requirements in this type of care for registered nurses at the graduation stage. However, Kielo et al 24 have identified general competence areas for registered nurses and podiatrists who provide chronic wound care, and these could be used as a framework for basic wound‐care education and assessment in bachelor level courses.…”

Attitudes of nursing staff towards pressure ulcer prevention in primary and specialised health care: A correlational cross‐sectional study

“…Pressure ulcer (PU) prevention is an essential task in clinical nursing, 1 as most PUs are preventable if evidence‐based interventions such as PU risk assessment, repositioning, preventive skin care, nutrition, and supporting surfaces are used 2 . However, previous studies indicate that evidence‐based prevention interventions are not always followed, 3 and the negative attitudes of nursing staff towards PU prevention or the use of prevention guidelines can explain the omission 4,5 .…”