Nurses' wound care competency in a sample of hospitals in Northern Vietnam

Background: This study was designed to explore the knowledge and skills of registered nurses on wound care in the north of Vietnam, the study encompassed eight hospitals and the findings were used identify the training needs for nurses to enable them to gain the National Basic Competency Standards for Nurses.
Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive prospective study was carried out starting in June 2020 completing in October 2020, The eight hospitals were in four provinces of Northern Vietnam - Hanoi, Quang Ninh, Thai Nguyen and Bac Ninh. Data were collected using a standardised checklist to observe the practice of nurses providing wound care. The two main outcomes from analysis of the data were the knowledge score and the practical capacity/competence of the nurses in wound care.
Results: In total of 518 nurses participated in the study, the mean age was 32.25±7.31; with 438 (84.6%) being female. 63.6% reported clinical experience of less than 10 years, and overall 58.1% were educated at college education level (diploma) university level was 28.2%; and post-university level was 4%. The highest mean scores for knowledge were found in health education for patients, followed by care of clean wounds, communication skills and team work, management and professional development and pressure ulcer wound care. in the practice domain the highest mean scores were found in the ability to plan wound care, followed by self-evaluation, identification of wound types and implementation of wound care plans.
Conclusions and recommendations: The results revealed that when compared to the national competency standards, the nurses' level of wound care competency needed improvement. Also that there is a clear theory-practice gap. The main recommendation was that all hospitals should carry out regular training for all nurses based on the competency standards for Vietnamese nurses, on;y that way will wound care improve.