Premium
Increasing competence in compression therapy for venous leg ulcers through training and exercise measured by a newly developed score—Results of a randomised controlled intervention study
Author(s) -
Protz Kerstin,
Dissemond Joachim,
Karbe Daniela,
Augustin Matthias,
Klein Toni Maria
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
wound repair and regeneration
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.847
H-Index - 109
eISSN - 1524-475X
pISSN - 1067-1927
DOI - 10.1111/wrr.12899
Subject(s) - medicine , heel , physical therapy , compression bandage , massage , randomized controlled trial , competence (human resources) , compression therapy , surgery , bandage , psychology , alternative medicine , social psychology , pathology , anatomy
Compression therapy with short‐stretch bandages is the most common treating option for patients with venous leg ulcers in the decongestion phase in Germany. This randomised controlled intervention study examined whether a training is suitable to sustainably improve the skills of health care professionals. Altogether 55 nurses from hospitals and outpatient care participated. They were randomly assigned to case and control groups. Participants' abilities to properly apply a compression bandaging were assessed before and after a training session as well as after 1 and 3 months using a newly developed score (CCB score) based on six control parameters (CPs): padding, starting point, heel inclusion, heart direction, pressure at forefoot (A) and calf base (B1). After training, a significant increase in competence was observed, which only decreased non‐significantly over the observation period: The average CCB score was 2.796 at V0, 4.89 at V1, 4.88 at V2, and 4.66 at V3. The CPs for pressure at A and B1 were met by a maximum of 42.6 and 43.6%, respectively, at all timepoints. The CP starting point was fulfilled by at least 61.7% after training, the CPs heart direction, heel and underpadding by at least 89.4, 96.4, and 97.9%, respectively. As a result of our study, it can be concluded that training improves the ability of users to apply compression bandagings, but one‐off training does not appear to be suitable to improve the ability to apply compression bandagings with a therapy‐relevant pressure. Therefor more training especially with pressure measuring devices would be necessary.