Visual presentation of digital wound images : exploring community nurses' preferences and attitudes

Recent research indicates that digital wound photography is a helpful tool in the wound care management process. Previous studies have demonstrated the benefits of incorporating digital images in the wound care management process for registered nurses (RNs), however no information was found regarding the preferred visual display formats of digital wound images within wound care management software. Wound care is an important part of community care nursing work, and this study explored the community care RNs’ perceptions and attitudes towards different formats of digital wound data displays, with the aim to explore the usefulness of having more than one display format of the digital wound data within a wound care application. The study applied a combination of Technology Acceptance Model 2 and Task Technology Fit model as a framework to guide the interview sessions with the community care RNs and to design a questionnaire to survey the perceptions and attitudes towards different formats of digital wound data display. The study consisted of two phases. Phase 1 involved extracting digital images of chronic wounds from the community database and creating wound care case scenarios with the corresponding wound display prototypes. Phase 2 included interview sessions with five community care RNs. The outcome of the study was the discovery of themes and patterns based on narrative data from interview sessions and answers to survey questionnaires. Study results suggest that the community care RNs could benefit from having access to more than one display format of the digital wound data. Digital wound images associated with the corresponding clinical narrative could provide a more complete clinical picture in one place and improve efficiency of wound assessment. Integration of the reporting capability to generate a wound case summary could improve community care RNs planning when preparing for patients’ visits. This small-scale study provides initial evidence that the development of optimal display formats in the wound care application could improve the wound management process in the community settings. Additional research is required to explore the display formats that would be most informative, effective and efficient in the daily routine of community care RNs.Applied Science, Faculty ofNursing, School ofUnreviewedGraduat