Healthy habits to prevent complex lower extremity wounds. Relevance of the recommendations according to an experts

Introduction: Self-care education programs for people suffering from chronic conditions improve both their health and their quality of life. These programs should be composed of accepted and validated advice.

Objectives: To determine the relevance of recommendations for the prevention of complex wounds published by scientific societies and provided by professional
experts in wounds; to compile, classify according to etiology and order by relevance these recommendations.

Methodology: Prospective observational study with a survey of wound experts accredited by the GNEAUPP. The recommendations published by the scientific societies were collected and a telematic survey was carried out to identify their level of relevance. Variables: years of experience in wound management, work setting, relevance score on a Likert scale for each recommendation. Values collected in the data collection notebook were analyzed.

Results: Forty nurses participated, 88% had more than 5 years of experience and 63% more than 15 years. Most of them, 35%, worked in primary care. The results have allowed us to order the recommendations for self-cure of the different etiologies and to identify the most relevant ones.

Conclusions: The identification of the most relevant recommendations will allow us to focus on them for the educational program on healthy habits aimed at patients with lower extremity ulcers carried out in our Clinical Unit of Complex Wounds.

Wounds, leg ulcer, diabetic foot, health education.