Online care course meets rising need
Wound-care education is heading online through a partnership between a Waikato institute and a national society.
A short course developed by Wintec and the New Zealand Wound Care Society is believed to be the first fully online Kiwi education available for nurses.
And one of the collaborators says it’s arrived as the ageing population is growing, meaning nurses are likely to see more chronic wounds.
Registered nurses regularly dealt with a range of wounds, Wintec’s centre for health and social practice postgraduate team manager Helen Nielsen said, including those from accidents, skin tears in the elderly or chronic problems such as long-term ulcers.
‘‘Attending to wounds is a major nursing skill,’’ she said. ‘‘It’s an area of practice where there’s never actually been any formal education before . . . The nurses themselves are looking for education.’’
The course was aimed at registered nurses and would include wound assessment, analysis, treatment plans and dressing product functions, she said.
Online learning meant the nurses could learn flexibly without having to take leave and it was also accessible to rural practitioners.
Wintec worked with two expert advisers: Waikato District Health Board nurse practitioner Julie Betts and Hospice Waikato director of nursing Wayne Naylor.
Until recently Betts was on the New Zealand Wound Care Society and Naylor was the chairman. There was a gap in the nursing education market, Betts said.
‘‘We’ve never had a comprehensive foundation course for RNs [registered nurses] in wound care.’’
She saw skin tears in the elderly becoming increasingly common as the Kiwi population aged.
‘‘We’re much more likely to see what I call complex and chronic wounds that are to do with age and chronic disease because that part of our health population is growing,’’ she said.
She was keen to look into the creation of post-graduate papers in wound care to allow practitioners to specialise. Wound Care for Nursing Practice is a level 7 course for registered nurses.
