Nurses' knowledge and competence in wound management

Background: The literature indicates that nurses' knowledge in wound assessment is insufficient to inform practice and if knowledge is present it is not reflected in clinical practice. The competence required to perform wound care assessment and management is context-dependent, incorporating the nurse's ability, the task to be performed and the setting in which it is completed. A correlation between knowledge and competence is said to exist, however no studies were sourced that examined knowledge and competence in wound assessment and management. Aim: To explore nurses' knowledge and competence in wound assessment and management in the acute hospital setting. Method: A descriptive quantitative design was used. Data were collected from 150 nurses via a researcher-designed questionnaire. Results: Findings indicated that knowledge of the parameters of wound assessment were very good. Statistically significant correlations were found between knowledge and wound assessment competence in respondents who had updated their wound care knowledge in the previous two years. Findings also suggest that the more wounds treated per week significantly impacted on competence but not on knowledge. Conclusions: Nurses' general knowledge in relation to wound assessment was very good contrasting with findings in previous research. However, a large number of nurses rated their competence in relation to wound assessment on the lower end of the scale. When nurses had updated their knowledge on wound care in the previous two years application to practice was significantly enhanced. Conflict of interest: None.