[Undergraduate education on chronic wound care at German medical schools--the role of surgical disciplines].

INTRODUCTION In response to the problem of chronic wounds, we decided to investigate the status of chronic wound care in undergraduate medical programs in Germany. MATERIAL AND METHODS The deans of medical schools in Germany and all relevant instructors of dermatology, surgery, internal medicine and general medicine, pathology and health care of the elderly at 32 universities in Germany were asked to fill out a questionnaire. RESULTS The mean teaching time is 7 hours [0.75-16.5]. The lessons covered clinical entities such as venous ulcer (21 %), diabetic (18 %) and arterial ulcer (12 %), decubital ulcers (13 %), ulcers with vasculitis (11 %), burns (9 %) and neoplastic ulcers (4 %), or others (12 %). The respective material is taught in approximately two-thirds as a lecture and one-third in seminars and practical sessions. Only in 6 % of the cases a practical examination is performed. DISCUSSION Undoubtedly 7 hours of teaching on chronic wound care are not sufficient. Stringent coordination of the medical education at each university and practical examinations may improve student education.

[1]  M. Granick,et al.  Comparison of Wound Education in Medical Schools in the United States, United Kingdom, and Germany , 2008, Eplasty.

[2]  M. Granick,et al.  Wound Education: American Medical Students Are Inadequately Trained in Wound Care , 2007, Annals of plastic surgery.

[3]  B. Kuehn.  Chronic wound care guidelines issued. , 2007, JAMA.

[4]  K. Campbell,et al.  Health Policy and the Delivery of Evidence-Based Wound Care Using Regional Wound Teams , 2006, Healthcare management forum.

[5]  L. Téot.  The Role of Education in Wound Healing , 2006, The international journal of lower extremity wounds.

[6]  K. Harding,et al.  ABC of wound healing: Venous and arterial leg ulcers , 2006, BMJ.

[7]  O. Dereure,et al.  Wound healing university diplomas in France: an impact measurement after 6 years , 2005, International wound journal.

[8]  M. Clark,et al.  Is wound healing a true science or a clinical art? , 2004, The Lancet.

[9]  R. Fullilove,et al.  Do Nurse Practitioners Make a Difference in Provision of Health Counseling in Hospital Outpatient Departments? , 2004, Journal of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners.

[10]  Finn Gottrup,et al.  A specialized wound-healing center concept: importance of a multidisciplinary department structure and surgical treatment facilities in the treatment of chronic wounds. , 2004, American journal of surgery.

[11]  F. Gottrup.  Optimizing wound treatment through health care structuring and professional education , 2004, Wound repair and regeneration : official publication of the Wound Healing Society [and] the European Tissue Repair Society.

[12]  G. Giani,et al.  Unchanged incidence of lower-limb amputations in a German City, 1990-1998. , 2001, Diabetes care.

[13]  P. Holstein,et al.  Decreasing incidence of major amputations in people with diabetes , 2000, Diabetologia.

[14]  J Peters,et al.  A review of the factors influencing nonrecurrence of venous leg ulcers. , 1998, Journal of clinical nursing.

[15]  S. Coerper,et al.  Die chirurgische Wundsprechstunde , 1997 .

[16]  M. Davis.  Wound-care training in medical education. , 1996, Journal of wound care.