Enhancing Self-Efficacy in Diabetic Foot Ulcer Management

Objective: This quality improvement project aims to assess the effect of audiovisual education on patient confidence in caring for their diabetic foot ulcers (DFU). Diabetes care costs the United States healthcare system $327 billion annually (CDC, 2022). A high-cost sequela is DFU that lead to chronic pain, wound infection, and amputation. Literature review revealed that audiovisual education is a valid and accessible tool to increase self-efficacy behaviors (SEB) in caring for DFU. The Health Belief Model guided project development. Methods: The VELUSET tool, with an overall α of 0.931, was adapted for DFU. A pre- and post-survey evaluated the effect of audiovisual wound education on patient SEB of adult patients fluent in Spanish or English with DFU at an outpatient wound clinic over three clinic visits. Patients were recruited as part of their regularly scheduled diabetes wound care visits with follow-ups consistent with regular scheduling with an n= 6. Results: Inferential statistics revealed the following results: Pretest (M = 56, SD = 4.552) and Posttest (M = 58.50, SD = 1.73), t (3) = -1.61, p = .206, significant p value set p = < 0.05. The effect size, measured by Cohen’s d, is d= 0.80, indicates a large effect. Conclusion: Audiovisual education can increase self-efficacy in performing wound care techniques for patients with diabetes. Further evaluation of education techniques is needed to improve patient outcomes.