Incorporating Wound Care in a Christian Village Health Worker Training Program

Problem:  Villagers in underdeveloped areas frequently have infected non-healing wounds because of inappropriate wound care.  Traditional healers and modern hospitals often extract high fees from uneducated patients without take time to prepare the wound bed or apply moist wound healing.  As a result, wound patients endure much suffering.  Limbs and even lives are needlessly lost due to lack of adequate wound care. 

Rationale:  Although some modern wound techniques are costly, TIME can be used in any setting with minimal equipment.  When sanitation, hygiene, and nutrition are taught and good wound healing principles are practiced, health workers have progressively fewer patients from which to extract fees.  So, knowledge and hard work must be coupled with altruism in order to improve the health of impoverished villagers. 

Methods:  Students applying for our village health care worker course had to agree that their health work would not fully support their families, but they would continue farming or trading.  The course was held adjacent to a Christian clinic with a wound care emphasis; the primary instructors were known for their wound care.  The students received four weeks (120 hours) of intensive classroom health care training, plus practical training and direct observation.  Approximately one third of the coursework was specifically skin and wound care, nutrition, sanitation and hygiene. 

Results:  The students were impressed by the prominence wound care had at the clinic.  They saw many diverse wound cases.  Some came to the clinic extra hours to observe and to practice bandaging techniques.  All of them learned to make and use appropriate wound cleansing solutions and keep wounds moist.

Conclusion:  The clinic sees comparatively few wound patients from villages with our trained health workers.  When clinic staff visit these areas for “mobile clinics,” villagers often comment specifically on how much wound care the health worker is doing.