Education for Venous Leg Ulcer Patients

Venous leg ulcers (VLU) are slow healing wounds. They have a high recurrence rate and are associated with pain, infection, smell and exudate. 60% of VLU become chronic. Current therapeutic approaches are multifaceted and focus on improving wound healing and preventing recurrences. As those approaches include compression therapy, leg elevation, specific exercises for the foot/ ankle region and a protein rich diet/ nutrition plan a multidisciplinary team of health care professionals such as nursing, physiotherapy, occupational therapy and nutrition specialists. Most persons with VLU have a knowledge deficit in regards to therapeutic measures and hence have difficulties with adherence to treatment protocols/ management plans. It is of utmost importance, and best practice, that the treatment team provides effective patient education and support during the learning phase. However, there is little evidence and no published studies that describe and evaluate effective multidisciplinary educational interventions that target compliance/ adherence to the treatment plan in patients with VLU. Therefore the investigators propose to develop an evidence-based interprofessional educational intervention and evaluate its feasibility first in a pilot study and subsequently in a randomized controlled trail. Method/Design: Firstly, the development of an evidence based education intervention in collaboration with an expert panel and secondly a randomized controlled pilot study in one wound care outpatient clinic is proposed. Data will be analyzed using SPSS version 23. Univariate and bivariate analysis will be conducted according to the data level and distribution of the data. Discussion: The TIEIVLU will firstly develop an evidenced based educational intervention and secondly examine the feasibility of implementing this education intervention in a realistic care context in patients with VLU. The results will inform the final design of a following RCT which will examine the effectiven