Title

APWCA2009 - Apr 04, 2009

Author(s)
 

Presented at: Philadelphia, PA

Background
Traditional healers and modern hospitals in underdeveloped areas often extract high fees from uneducated patients, but rarely provide appropriate wound care. As a result, villagers frequently suffer from infected nonhealing wounds. Limbs and even lives are needlessly lost as a result. Although some modern wound techniques are costly, TIME (tissue, infection, moisture, edge) principles can be used in any setting with minimal equipment. When sanitation, hygiene, and nutrition are taught and good wound healing principles are practiced, health workers have progressively fewer patients from which to extract fees. So, to improve the health of impoverished villagers, knowledge and hard work must be coupled with altruism.

Methods
Village health care worker course applicants had to agree that they would continue farming or trading to support their families. The course was held adjacent to a Christian clinic; the primary instructors were clinicians known for their wound care. The students received four weeks (120hrs) of intensive classroom instruction, plus practical training and direct observation, including ~40hrs dedicated to skin and wound care, nutrition, sanitation and hygiene.

Results
The students were impressed by the prominence wound care had at the clinic; some came extra hours to observe and practice bandaging techniques. All of them learned to make and use appropriate wound cleansing solutions and keep wounds moist.

Conclusions
The clinic sees comparatively few wound patients from villages with trained health workers. When staff visit these areas for 'mobile clinics,' villagers often comment on how much wound care the health worker is doing