ABSTRACT

Oulu University of Applied Sciences Degree Programme in Nursing, Option of Nursing

Authors: Hanne Kortsalo and Monica Vartiainen Title of thesis: Wound Care Knowledge and Skills in Trauma Ward of Oulu University Hospital Supervisors: Terttu Koskela and Nina Männistö Term and year when the thesis was submitted: Spring 2012 Number of pages: 57 + 13 pages of appendices

BACKGROUND: Wound care is a growing and rapidly developing part of nursing and health care and it is going to play a more important role when population is ageing. Annually wound care ex-penses are high, and therefore knowledge of wound care should be of good quality. The Trauma Ward of Oulu University Hospital asked us to conduct a study about wound care skills in their ward.

AIM: The aim of this study was to get information about the state of wound care in the Trauma Ward. We examined how well educated the nursing staff in the Trauma Ward was as to wound care. Our target was also to find out the problems and development needs concerning wound care.

METHOD: In this study we used a qualitative method combined with quantitative features. The method to collect information about wound care skills was a questionnaire. The sample consisted of 25 nurses and practical nurses. The collected data was content analysed and quantitative data was categorized with the help of quantitative grading.

RESULTS: The Trauma Ward provided good-quality wound care that was performed properly and holistically. Wound care was paid special attention to and it was regarded as an important aspect of nursing care. The nursing staff was motivated to perform wound care and to develop both wound care and their professional competence. Among the development needs the staff mentioned further education, improvement of asepsis management, planning of more accurate guidelines and updating of the guidelines for everyday practice.

CONCLUSION: This study can help develop wound care and therefore add quality in surgical nursing and in wound care generally in specialized health care. Wound care plays a major part in surgical nursing and hence a similar study could also be executed in other surgical wards and healthcare centers.

Keywords: Wound care, nursing skills, qualitative research