With the current push to develop critical pathways for chronic
wound patients, information on "normal" versus problematic wound healing is important. This descriptive study begins to define chronic wound healing time markers by examining clinicians' own healing expectations with
pressure ulcers. A 30-item questionnaire concerning partial and full thickness
pressure ulcers on the sacrum, trochanter and heel was sent to 272
wound/ET nurses. Total response rate was 32.3% with 74 analyzable questionnaires returned. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and correlations where appropriate. Results were: (1) The longer respondents thought it would take for
wounds to heal, the more variable their responses. (2) Respondents viewed heel
wounds as taking the longest to heal and were more certain about time to healing in sacral
wounds. (3) Responses indicated longer healing times than those shown in recent studies looking at change in
wound surface area. (4) Results on time of 3.2 weeks to autolytic
debridement of
wounds with black eschar does not differ greatly from published time for enzymatic
debridement, in spite of guidelines stating that
autolysis may take longer than other methods. This study demonstrates that there remains variability in
wound nurses' perceptions of time to healing and, therefore, recent attempts at defining critical pathways may be premature.