Home Care Nurses Experiences on Chronic Wound Care-Literature review

There is a lack of studies that detail how home care nurses feel about the wound care they deliver. Home care nurses play a significant role in the care of patients with chronic wounds, but their experiences on the care of individuals with such wounds is poorly describe. To better understand their experiences, a literature review is needed. Thus, the purpose of this study is to describe home care nurses’ experiences on the care of chronic wounds. The aim is to identify home care nurses` experiences of chronic wound care regarding assessment, technique, and documentation. The information was acquired from trustworthy databases such as CINAHL, PubMed, and ProQuest via the University's online database Laurea Finna. Ten papers were chosen as data for this study based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. An inductive content analysis was performed, and the data acquired was classified using a content analysis table. The study question was, “what kind of experiences do home care nurses have about chronic wound care”. Findings were summarized into three main themes: physical distress in malodour and coping mechanisms, importance of nursing competence in wound care, and collaboration experiences. Nursing patients with chronic wounds has been found to be as a distressing experience for nurses physically due to the malodour of malignant fungating wounds, mentally, because they were unable to provide adequate care for their patients suffering, and professionally, due to the lack of evidence-based knowledge in wound care, confusion in wound care procedures and treatments, and work collaboration difficulties with patients, colleagues, and General Practitioners (GP). Coping defenses was the only way for them to manage these experiences due to the lack of organizational support and training about these challenging areas in home care nursing. For future studies, it would be beneficial to review the evidence-based guidelines on chronic wound care and research-based decision making of home care nurses