Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Email
 |
Checking for direct PDF access through Ovid | |
Excerpt
Charlottesville (VA): Family Health Media, 1999, 21 minutes, $99.
Health care professionals often look for patient educational materials to assist in their practice. Venous Leg Ulcers: A Guide for Patients and Caregivers is a 21-minute videotape that helps fill the voidin patient educational materials about wounds and their care. The video focuses on venous disease as a chronic condition and the need for lifelong preventive care practices, both of which are mentioned several times throughout the tape. It highlights a person's stress and worry about venous disease, the fear of leg amputation, and discouragement with slow healing.
Venous ulcers are described in the video as being painful, draining, having an odor, and being slow to heal. Information about risk factors for venous leg ulcers is presented, including standing or sitting for long periods, effects of pregnancy, and a history of deep vein thrombosis. The information can be used preventatively for people who have chronic venous insufficiency but have not yet developed an ulcer, thus helping to maintain health and prevent further vein damage. The video also discusses the ulcer and its care.
The video has some unique features, such as showing the physiologic effect of the calf muscle pump, normal and diseased valves in a Doppler study, how a diseased valve looks, and the effect of compression altering the shape of the vein. These action images are generally not available or do not have the same impact in print form. Application of a compression-type dressing is demonstrated, and the frequency of change is stated as being once or twice a week. The video mentions that several types of compression dressings are available; it does not endorse one particular product.
This video helps patients and caregivers understand that their concerns are normal, what causes the disease, the treatment, and the importance of their participation in care. The patient is shown as an active participant. Self-care practices include use of compression stockings, walking 20 minutes per day, ankle flex exercises 10 times per hour, elevating the legs above the heart for 20 minutes several times per day, and elevating the foot of the mattress with books. The video mentions the importance of weight loss for persons who are overweight and good nutrition for wound healing. Both men and women, as well as white people and African Americans, are shown as patients. One patient in a wheelchair is elderly; others appear to be middle-aged. The health care professionals are not designated as nurse, physician assistant, or physician, and thus the video is appropriate to many clinical settings.
Medical terminology such as chronic ambulatory hypertension, chronic venous insufficiency, deep vein thrombosis, and compression are explained but may re-quire further explanation from the health care professional. At the beginning, the video states that arterial ulcers and diabetic ulcers will not be discussed. Although making this distinction is important, some patients may become confused about these additional terms and may need more of an explanation. A patient is shown applying support stockings in the morning and removing them at night; however, the stocking shown is a panty hose-type that is generally not the most common stocking ordered. If a second edition is produced, the inclusion of techniques to assist in stocking application, the care of stockings, or the frequency of replacing stockings would assist both caregivers and patients.
A companion document accompanying the video presents a summary of key points, a glossary of terms, content outline with questions and answers, a pretest and posttest, resource associations, Internet sites, and selected references.
