Nurse Knowledge and Confidence in Nutrition for Wound Healing

Background: Acute and chronic wounds occur in patients regardless of age and demographics.  Nutritional interventions have been shown to increase wound healing rates, however, patients often lack this knowledge and rely on healthcare providers to counsel and guide them.  The literature shows that nurses do not have the confidence to provide this needed education because of their own knowledge deficit.  

Purpose: The purpose of this project was to examine the impact of education regarding nutrition for wound healing on nurse knowledge and confidence with providing patient education.  

Methods: A sample of nurses from two hospitals (critical access hospital and orthopedic unit in large hospital) were invited to complete a pre-survey (n = 20), participate in an educational intervention, and complete a post-survey (n = 16).  Prior to receiving the educational intervention, the nurses agreed or strongly agreed (M = .95) that it is important to provide nutritional education to their patients. The nurses did not have the knowledge-base to provide education to their patients, and they did not feel confident in their ability to use the teach-back method to provide that education.  

Results: After the completion of an educational intervention that featured a brief presentation and brochure that contained recommendations for wound healing, nurses increased their knowledge of basic nutritional principles (p = .0009, g = 1.268), they felt more confident in their ability to provide nutritional education to their patients (p = .001, g = 1.3), and the nurses felt more confident in their ability to use teach-back to provide nutritional education to their patients (p = .068, g = .652).

Conclusions: This project demonstrates that a brief presentation and a simple brochure featuring nutritional information for wound healing, had a strong effect size and increased the bedside nurses’ knowledge and confidence in providing education and guidance to a patient with a healing wound.