| dc.description.abstract | Wound cleaning and dressing is one of the
main responsibilities of nurses and nursing
undergraduates. Better awareness on wound
cleaning and dressing minimizes wound
infections, healing time, pain during the
procedure, as well as duration of hospital
stay. Indirectly this will minimize government
expenditure on wound management and will
enhance patient’s quality of life. According to
literature, there is a paucity of research on nurses’
awareness on wound cleaning and dressing.
Published data regarding this aspect in Sri Lanka
is also scarce. This study aims to assess current
awareness among student nurses of Faculty of
Allied Health Sciences, University of Peradeniya.
A descriptive, cross-sectional study was carried
out collecting data from one hundred and fiftyone
(151) student nurses using a self-administered
questionnaire. The study revealed that nursing
students of the faculty have sound knowledge
in most aspects related to wound cleaning and
dressing. Overall, their average knowledge score
was 68 % and there was a significant positive
correlation between the duration of clinical
exposure and the mean score of the knowledge (
= .83, p < .01). There are gaps in their knowledge
with respect to different wound cleaning
solutions and techniques, management of special
wounds such as burn wounds, venous/diabetic
ulcers, neonatal/infant wounds as well as on
newly available dressing products in the market.
Therefore, it is imperative to develop an effective
educational program to enhance awareness
and supervise undergraduates closely while
performing rather than rely on self-reported data. | en_US |
