Predictive value of emergency department patients’ self-efficacy beliefs on follow-up care of lacerations

Summary 

Background

Patients receiving wound care in the emergency department (ED) often do not follow instructions or return for follow-up appointments sometimes resulting in complications. This research examined self-efficacy and outcome beliefs regarding wound care and their relationship to patients’ returning to the ED to have sutures removed.

Methods

This study included a convenience sample of 100 patients requiring sutures for lacerations who presented to the EDs of a suburban and a community hospital in the United States each with an annual ED census of greater than 50,000. Participants completed the wound care questionnaire (WCQ), a self-efficacy and outcome beliefs instrument.

Results

Self-efficacy beliefs for following laceration care instructions including returning to the ED were identified as significant predictors of patients who returned and those who did not return to the ED for suture removal. Additionally, older age was a significant predictor of return to the ED for suture removal, but outcome beliefs were not.

Conclusions

The WCQ, completed by ED patients requiring sutures for lacerations, can be used by nurses to predict which patients will return to the ED for suture removal. This is one of the first studies to identify self-efficacy as a predictor of follow-up behavior in the ED.

Keywords: Emergency department, Self-efficacy, Lacerations