Patient education pictorial boards: improving patients' understanding of venous leg ulcer and compression therapy.

A major problem among patients with venous leg ulcers (VLUs) is adherence to compression therapy. It is therefore essential that patients understand their condition and how compression works as without this treatment the ulcer is unlikely to heal. As a Tissue Viability service wanting to improve our VLU patient education we decided to engage with our patients to understand their current knowledge of their VLU condition and how compression therapy works, to understand their own words for leg ulcer terminology, and to ask them how they prefer to learn and receive this information. From this work, the VLU Education Boards were developed using colourful visual pictorial images of inside the leg, with simply written terminology chosen by our patients to be used alongside verbal explanation. Evaluation post-education with the boards showed improvement in patient knowledge of their condition and treatment. Nurses also felt more confident in their explanation of the VLU diagnosis and how compression treatment works. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]