Holly Denton

Wound care practitioners are drawn from many different disciplines and cultural backgrounds, each with their own languages, dialects and professional jargons. However, such an international, interdisciplinary art and science requires a mutual understanding of agreed-on terms and definitions. This shared language is essential for wound care teams to communicate in daily practice, as well as to compare their clinical experience and research results at conferences and in publications. All of this will raise the quality of care and, ultimately, improve patient outcomes.

This harmonised glossary of terms builds on the work of others who have sought agreement on the language of wound healing. The authors of this project began with a review of published literature that sought to define terms used in wound care. They then synthesised the various definitions of similar terms, harmonising the often subtle differences between them. Terms are defined as they relate to wound care specifically. To ensure that these definitions would find common acceptance worldwide and across disciplines, an international panel of experts from differing fields was invited to review an initial draft of the glossary. The authors and panel held a consensus meeting, where they reached agreement on the harmonisation of terms. The result is this harmonised glossary, published in the Journal of Wound Care. It is circulated as part of the journal's author instructions to help standardise terminology across future submissions.

This glossary will be revisited every 2 years so that, where necessary, it can be amended to align with new research and updates to evidence-based practice. In that regard, should readers agree or disagree with any of the definitions or have suggestions or comments to improve future editions, the authors would welcome engagement. This will ensure the harmonised glossary of wound care terms becomes an evolving tool that everyone finds useful—the rarest of accolades when it comes to books.

Background: Insufficient wound care knowledge in nursing students affects confidence and competence. Scarce research on wound care content and delivery leads to curriculum disparities. Integrating essential content is vital for improved wound care education.

Aims: This study aimed to determine Australian wound care curriculum content for a 3-year Bachelor of Nursing program and identify the optimal year for introducing each topic, as recognised by experts.

Methodology: A three-round Delphi survey involved 17 wound care experts in Australia. The survey used the Standards for wound prevention and management to identify 74 wound care topics within the three categories of anatomy and physiology (A & P), assessment and treatment/therapies, requiring >70% agreement on the year of introduction for each topic.

Results: The Delphi process established consensus on the initial introduction year for 65 of the 74 wound care topics. A total of 19 topics garnered consensus exceeding 70% in the first year, 19 in the second year, 15 in the third year, and 12 for postgraduate study. Expert consensus enabled a progressive development of knowledge and skills in wound theory, assessment, care planning, patient education and prevention over the 3-year program.

Conclusion: The gathering of this data has allowed for conceptual scaffolding of these topics according to the stage at which wound care topics are recommended for introduction into nursing curricula.

Background There is evidence in the literature that there is a lack of knowledge related to wound care among entry to practice nursing students, which can influence nursing students’ confidence and competence. The research exploring the content and delivery of wound education is limited but does demonstrate that the nursing curricula between university programs internationally, and nationally within Australia, varies significantly. To reduce the inconsistencies and improve the quality of wound care education in undergraduate nursing curricula, it is important to identify what wound care content should be delivered and how this content should be scaffolded across the nursing program. Aims The central aims of the research were to ascertain what experts identify as important wound care curriculum content for a three year Bachelor of Nursing program and in which year students should first be introduced to each topic. Methodology A Delphi technique was used to establish consensus for a list of wound care topics (n=74) as to when they should be first introduced to nursing students. The wound care topics were taken from the Standards for Wound Prevention and Management (Wounds Australia, 2016) and divided into three categories: ‘anatomy and physiology’, ‘assessments’ and ‘treatments/therapies’ within the survey. Seventeen registered nurse wound care experts in Australia were recruited to take part in the three round Delphi survey and a response rate of 100% (n=17) was obtained in all three rounds. A consensus of >70% for the year that each topic should be first introduced was required. Results The Delphi process achieved consensus on the year that 65 wound care topics should be first introduced, with only nine topics not reaching above 70%. There were 19 topics nominated for year one and year two, 15 topics for year three and 12 topics that were nominated for post graduate study. There was a clear allocation of topics by the expert participants that enabled development of knowledge and skills over the three years across the conceptual areas of wound theory (includes anatomy and physiology, pathophysiology and pharmacology), physical assessment, psychosocial assessment, wound care skills, wound care planning, patient education and wound prevention. Conclusion Reducing the inconsistencies in wound care education and improving the standards of knowledge and skills in graduate nurses, is essential for the safe, effective and evidence-based care of individuals with wounds to improve their wound healing outcomes.