“Sucking the trouble” out of troubleshooting wound vacs: Video based curriculum development and implementation in a live tissue model

We hypothesized that non-surgeon, Negative Pressure Wound Therapy (NPWT) naïve participants would better identify device functions and troubleshoot failures after being exposed to a video curriculum (VC) compared to similar participants exposed to clinical practice guidelines (CPGs). VC and critical action step development was followed by randomization of 115 non-surgical, NPWT naïve participants into either the CPG or VC study groups. Participants individually identified components of the NPWT system and then worked as a team to troubleshoot three scenarios on an in vivo porcine model. VC participants better identified all NPWT components and functions (p ​< ​0.001), demonstrated correct cannister attachment (p ​< ​0.001) and performed a seal check (p ​< ​0.001). VC teams performed more critical action steps in the leak (p ​= ​0.011) and obstruction (p ​= ​0.001) scenarios. In post-event surveys, participants were more likely to find the VC easy to use and informative and were likely to recommend the videos to a colleague (p ​= ​0.008, p ​= ​0.019, p ​= ​0.02). VC participants demonstrated improved competency in individual NPWT component identification and team-based troubleshooting of NPWT failures. This VC represents an effective alternative to existing CPGs.