Mapping of pressure ulcers and non-healing wounds in medical curriculum

Aim: The issue of pressure ulcers and other non-healing wounds has been significantly underestimated in physicians' pre-gradual training for clinical practice. This contribution is focused on mapping of current status of the General Medicine study programme at the Masaryk University with regard to the topic of pressure ulcers and non-healing wounds. A set of key concepts that cover the topic has been defined in the cooperation with Czech healthcare experts. Methods: Analytical mapping of medical curriculum was based on frequency analysis of textual description of curriculum and pre-defined set of key concepts. Analytical steps were performed using the computing environment R and MS Excel. The aim is to identify related parts of the education programme by means of appropriate analytical methods and find eventual recommendations for the curriculum innovation. Results: The resulting report in a form of summary tables and charts identifies the spots of interest within the curricula of individual disciplines, which will lead to the improvement of education in the field of pressure ulcers and other non-healing (chronic) wounds. Conclusion: it was proven that attention is paid to the issue of non-healing wounds in the medical curriculum of undergraduate medical training at the Faculty of Medicine of Masaryk University in various years of study, both in preclinical and clinical medical disciplines. Within an increasing year of study there was identified higher number of teaching units and the hours containing key terms pressure ulcers and non-healing wounds.