Practice and community nurses' views and experiences of helping people manage risk factors for recurrent lower limb cellulitis: a qualitative interview study

Abstract

Background: cellulitis is a painful infection of the skin and underlying tissues, commonly affecting the lower leg. Approximately one-third of people experience recurrence. Nurses who work in general practice (practice nurses) and see people at home (community or district nurses) could have an important role in managing risk factors for cellulitis, such as long-term leg swelling, wound care and skin care.

Objective: to explore practice and community nurses' views and experiences of helping people to manage risk factors for recurrent lower limb cellulitis.

Methods: semi-structured, telephone interviews with 21 practice and community nurses in England from October 2020 to March 2021. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed using reflexive thematic analysis.

Results: nurses face multiple challenges when supporting people to manage risk factors for recurrent lower limb cellulitis. Key challenges include limited time and access to resources such as Doppler equipment, and the physical and psychosocial capabilities of patients to self-manage. Nurses identified potential strategies to overcome these challenges, such as placing greater emphasis on prevention and supporting self-management by providing resources for patients and support networks (paid and unpaid carers) to reinforce knowledge post-consultation and develop skills to self-care.

Conclusions: we identified a need to develop and evaluate resources, such as support materials, for nurses to use to help patients reduce their risk of recurrent cellulitis.

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Identifiers

ORCID for Ingrid Muller: orcid.org/0000-0001-9341-6133

ORCID for Emma Teasdale: orcid.org/0000-0001-9147-193X

ORCID for Miriam Santer: orcid.org/0000-0001-7264-5260

ORCID for NA Francis: orcid.org/0000-0001-8939-7312

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