A Performance Study of Multimedia Patient Education: A Case of Surgical Wound Care

Wound care skills are essential for patients in stable condition after surgery. A nurse must teach wound care skills and explain infection symptoms and signs to patients or their families before discharge to help wound healing. The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of group teaching with multimedia materials on wound care skills of surgical patients. This study is based on Solomon four-group design to study four surgical wards in a medical teaching hospital. There were 121 surgical patients selected according to purposive sampling, and divided into two experimental groups and two control groups. Test groups received multimedia teaching compiled by the researcher, and control groups received traditional nursing instruction. Performance of one test group and one control group were measured with a structured questionnaire before teaching, and all patients were measured after teaching. Data were collected and analyzed by SPSS/PC software package. Performance of test group and the control group before and after nursing instruction showed statistically significant difference (p=0.00). Wound care skills progress among all the four groups are significantly different (p= 0.002). It is an important task of nursing staff to provide disease-related knowledge and guidance of patient care to reduce complications. This study finds that wound care nursing guidelines with multimedia materials really enhance the wound care skills of patients and family members. It is hoped that this study will be a reference for other health education programs.