Patients' and clinicians' experiences of wound care in Canada: a descriptive qualitative study

Objective: This study sought to explore patients' and clinicians' perceptions and experiences with the provision of standard care by a home care nurse alone or by a multidisciplinary wound care team. Method: The interviews were conducted using an in-depth semi structured format; following a funnel idea of starting out broad and narrowing down, ensuring that all the necessary topics were covered by the end of the interview. Results: A purposive sample of 16 patients with different wound types were interviewed to ensure that the data would reflect the range and diversity of treatment and care experience. To reflect the diversity of experiences 12 clinicians from various clinical backgrounds were interviewed. Based on the analysis of the interviews, there are four overarching themes: wound care expertise is required across health-care sectors, psychosocial needs of patients with chronic wounds are key barriers to treatment concordance, structured training, and a well-coordinated multidisciplinary team approach. Conclusion: Results of this qualitative study identified different barriers and facilitators that affect the experiences of community-based wound care.