Quality of life of patients with hard-to-heal leg ulcers: a review of nursing documentation

Abstract

People with hard-to-heal leg ulcers experience reduced quality of life (QoL), including physical, mental and social aspects; this, in turn, negatively affects the wound healing process. QoL is often overlooked by health professionals treating those with hard-to-heal wounds, for whom the focus is instead on the wound itself and the healing process. This study aimed to investigate how the QoL of patients with hard-to-heal wounds is documented and followed up by nurses. The healthcare records of patients with hard-to-heal wounds were reviewed using an audit instrument. Data were collected retrospectively from 12 patient healthcare records. The nursing documentation included few notes related to patients' QoL. The nurses focused on issues such as nutrition, mobilisation and smoking, while the patients expressed concerns about anxiety/depressed mood, pain and sleeping difficulties. Only nine of the documented problems were approved according to the instrument. Most importantly, documentation of planned interventions and outcomes was missing. Documentation by nurses around the QoL of patients with hard-to-heal wounds is lacking, because of which QoL might be neglected and wound healing might not progress well.