Experts Teaching Wound Management—A Survey of Current Practices in Germany

Abstract

This study aimed to gain insights into wound care education for medical students in Germany. An exploratory study with an online survey was conducted among wound experts of different professions, requesting details about educational programmes concerning teaching content, methodology, integration into current curricula and teaching faculty. The analysis included 118 datasets gathered from 17 doctors, 93 nurses and eight other health professionals. In 48.9% of cases, wound management was taught by different health care professionals, with doctors and nurses building a teaching team most frequently (68.2%). In about half of the cases, the medical students were learning together with trainees from other health professions. The teaching team was interdisciplinary in 40.4% of the courses. The large range of medical disciplines in which wound care was taught shows how variably this topic can be used in medical teaching. Nevertheless, the results from this survey also show that the topic is still clearly underrepresented in medical training, even though there is a high level of interest among medical students and a clear relevance for everyday practice as a physician. The medical teachers in this survey suggest more practical sessions on causal therapy, wound pain, quality of life and local wound care in the regular medical curriculum.