Exploring nurses' holistic understanding and practice of debridement methods in hospital wound care: A phenomenological study

Safety debridement is an important part of wound care, but in practice, nurses face various challenges. Then, a deep understanding of nurses' experiences is needed to develop safe and effective wound care standards in accordance with standard clinical techniques. However, qualitative research exploring nurses' experiences with debridement is still very limited in the literature. This study aims to delve into how practitioners holistically understand and apply debridement, with a secondary focus on identifying standardized debridement methods and prevalent barriers to clinical practice. This study employed a phenomenological qualitative design to achieve its objectives. Data collection occurred from December 2024 to January 2025 at Arifin Achmad Regional General Hospital in Riau, Indonesia. Participants were selected using a purposive sampling method based on specific eligibility criteria. The inclusion criteria comprised nurses who have performed debridement and are currently assigned to relevant clinical wards. Conversely, the exclusion criteria were applied to nurses who are not directly involved in wound care. A total of 14 wound care nurses participated in the study. Following the receipt of ethical clearance, data were collected through in-depth interviews and analyzed using Colaizzi’s phenomenological method. The analysis gathered three primary themes: hospital-based debridement methodologies, the authority and competence of practitioners, and barriers to the implementation of safe debridement practices. Findings revealed that nurses frequently managed chronic diabetic foot ulcers, pressure injuries, and necrotic surgical wounds. For these cases, mechanical debridement emerged as the most frequently utilized method of wound bed preparation. The researchers identified both structural and technical barriers to effective practice. These findings emphasize the urgent need to strengthen nurses’ competencies through relevant wound care training. Keywords: Methods of debridement, phenomenological study, safety, wound care, wound healing