Surgical wound care education:

Post-operative complications affect one-in-four surgical patients within 14 days of hospital discharge (Kassin et al.,2012). Surgical site infection is the most common.

Delivering discharge education that is a two-way conversation; tailored to patient needs and preferences; and informative, increases patient confidence and ability to self-care once home (Rushton et al., 2017; Fredericks et al., 2010).

The research

We wanted to describe patients’ surgical wound care education experiences and determine how these experiences impact their ability to self-manage their wounds after hospital discharge.

We recruited 330 surgical patients from two Queensland hospitals. Following surgery or hospital discharge, patients were contacted by phone and asked about postoperative wound education. Patients’ average age across the sample was 55 years. Most were females who had completed secondary education.

Most patients received surgical wound care instructions about follow-up arrangements (89.6%), who to contact if they had concerns about their surgical wound (86.6%), and what activities to avoid during wound healing (74.2%). Patients received less instructions about how to clean the wound (56.7%), wound