Wound Care Education for Undergraduate Nursing Students | Insight Medical Publishing

Wound care is a dominant focus in nursing education and it encompasses theoretical underpinnings and practice of wound care related healing modalities. There are gaps in wound care education literature such as inconsistency between theory and lab teachings and constraints within the time allotment for practice. Such gaps impact the Bachelor of Science in nursing (BScN) students’ learning, their critical thinking, and wound care knowledge application. This article will explore wound care education for nursing students and its related gaps with a focus on a recent study that was conducted in Western Canada to further highlight their existence and impacts to create positive change. In this study, 126 BScN students and 44 nursing faculty members participated in three online surveys and two focus groups. The data collected was analyzed and led to identifying strategies to alleviate the existing educational gaps, which consequently will strengthen the BScN students’ decision making skills and wound care knowledge application. In addition, identifying such gaps will increase the wound care education curriculum developers’ awareness of their existence to provide more consistent, updated, and comprehensive wound care education; thus, supporting the BScN students learning.