What is the Wound CARE Instrument?

The Wound Care Instrument was developed by Wounds Canada and the Canadian Association for Enterostomal Therapy to provide a set of standards that support healthcare providers, wound management leaders, educators, purchasing managers, administrators, organizations, and health authorities to undertake a comprehensive and collaborative evidence-informed appraisal process before developing or introducing a wound management educational event or program.

The Wound CARE Instrument will:

Provide a foundation to identify the components required to plan, develop, implement, evaluate and sustain evidence-informed wound management education and programming.

Provide a benchmark to appraise the quality of wound management education and programming.

Support collaboration in the development and implementation of wound management education and programming.

Inform decisions related to the endorsement, adoption, adaption, purchase or rejection of wound management education and programming.

Improve patient care and health outcomes relating to the prevention and management.

 Why Use the Wound CARE Instrument?

With the latest evidence on education and program development synthesized into one document, healthcare professionals and organizations can standardize and improve the quality of wound care; thus, valuable resources may be reallocated to support other healthcare outcomes.

These standards for wound care education and program development can greatly affect the delivery and outcomes of wound management, making a significant contribution to Canadian healthcare.

The Wound CARE Instrument is divided into five phases that successfully support education and program development. Each phase in the Wound CARE Instrument has identified standards, which are followed by a discussion of the evidence.

Phase 1:

Preliminary Planning is an often forgotten step that ensures the purpose and goal are considered beforehand. This activity must be completed in a collaborative, comprehensive manner to successfully accomplish the remaining phases.

Phase 2:

Preparation and Development ensure that the components of the design and planning of the wound management educational event or program are met.

Phase 3:

Implementation supports the effective delivery of wound management educational events and programs.

Phase 4:

Outcomes provide the elements necessary to evaluate and measure the results post-implementation of wound management educational events and programs.

Phase 5:

Sustainability and Post- Implementation Planning ensure that short- and long-term strategies are in place to maintain the benefits of the wound management educational event or program, and provide ongoing support and evaluation.

How to use the Wound CARE Instrument:

Step 1: Select an educational event or program to be appraised and identify stakeholders to be involved in the decision-making.

Step 2: Stakeholders must review the proposed or existing educational event or program, consider preliminary planning, planning and development, implementation, evaluation and sustainability.

Step 3: Each stakeholder appraises and scores* the event or program independently, using the standards identified in the Wound CARE Instrument.

Step 4: Stakeholders meet to discuss their independent reviews and arrive collaboratively at a decision. They achieve consensus to endorse, adopt, adapt, purchase or reject the educational event or program.

Step 5: The instrument is signed by each stakeholder and dated to document the appraisal and final recommendation. This record should be kept on file.

* By using a scoring system the stakeholders can identify the weak areas easily and recommend improvement to increase the quality of the educational event or program.

Development Team

• Heather Orsted, RN, BN, ET, MSc

• Kimberly Stevenson, RN, BN, IIWCC

• M. Gail Woodbury, BScPT, MSc, PhD

Task Force

• Heather Orsted, RN, BN, ET, MSc (Chair)

• Karen Bruton, RN, CETN(C), IIWCC

• Patricia Coutts, RN, IIWCC

• Catherine Harley, RN, IIWCC, EMBA

• Mary Hill, RN, BScN, CETN(C), MScN

• David Keast, MSc, MD, FCFP

• Kathryn Kozell, RN, BA, MScN,CETN(C),APN (AC)

• Kimberly LeBlanc, BScN, RN,CETN(C),MN, IIWCC,

• R. Gary Sibbald, BSc, MD, FRCPC(Med) (Derm)

• Kevin Woo, RN, MSc, PhD, ACNP, GNC(C)

The Wound CARE Instrument has undergone a Delphi panel of Canadian wound care educators and a pilot with Canadian wound care clinicians and relevant stakeholders.

The Wound CARE Instrument is now available for distribution and downloading. Please CLICK HERE  to download the Wound CARE Instrument in PDF.