Barriers to wound debridement: results of an online survey

This paper presents the results of an online survey that investigated healthcare professionals’ knowledge of wound debridement and the techniques used. The survey, using purposive sampling, was distributed to healthcare professionals working within tissue viability services (n=252) via Survey Monkey across the UK to investigate healthcare professionals’ knowledge of wound debridement and the techniques used. Response rate was 31% representing 77 participants practicing in wound care within various healthcare organisations throughout the UK. The majority of respondents (72; 93.5%) reported that they debrided wounds with seventy one respondents (95.9%) reporting they were aware of the TIME concept of which 52 stated they used TIME in their wound management approach. The findings demonstrate that healthcare professionals are aware of the importance of preparing the wound bed for the healing process with the majority of respondents using the TIME (Tissue, Infection/Inflammation, Moisture, Epithelial Edges) concept to support their assessment of wounds. However the knowledge of wound debridement was limited. There was no consensus regarding whether or not health professionals recognised the differences between the terms desloughing and debridement. The majority of healthcare professionals identified time and lack of knowledge and skills as barriers to effective wound debridement techniques.