PGW5203 - Wound management principles - 2019

One of the principles of wound management is the maintenance of a physiologic wound environment to optimise each patient's wound healing potential. This involves preventing and managing infection, cleansing the wound, removable of nonviable tissue, maintaining moisture balance, controlling odour, protecting the wound and periwound area and eliminating or minimising pain. This unit will explore how these can be achieved using wound dressing products and technologies as well as alternative/adjunctive therapies.

At the completion of this unit students will be able to:

1. Formulate a wound care management plan incorporating skin and wound assessment to guide selection of appropriate products or technologies.
2. Critically review wound dressings and technologies describing their properties and place in therapy.
3. Evaluate the role of debridement in wound bed preparation.
4. Critically appraise adjunctive/alternative therapies used in wound care, including suggested mode of action and level of evidence to support use.
5. Communicate effectively with patients to improve concordance with wound care management plans.

Two minor assignments: 30%

Major written assignment: 50% (hurdle)

Participation in online discussion boards: 20%

Minimum total expected workload to achieve the learning outcomes for this unit is 144 hours per semester typically comprising a mixture of scheduled learning activities and independent study. The unit requires on average 10-12 hours of scheduled activities per week. Scheduled activities may include teacher directed learning, reading time, participation in online discussion boards or discussion groups, research and preparation for assignments.

See also Unit timetable information