Teaching bandaging and Doppler usage for venous ulcer treatment

This article describes how an assessor's guide and a student learning contract about compression and Doppler therapy was presented to community nurses and practice nurses in an NHS acute and community trust. The objectives were to provide potential assessors with standardized practice in the application of compression bandaging and the use of Doppler-assisted diagnosis in the treatment of venous leg ulceration. This was achieved by a teaching session using two checklists, one for the assessor and the other for the 'student'. Role play was used to allow experience of assessing or being assessed in a classroom setting. References to key pertinent articles were provided to support the learning contract, and the development of a resource file was proposed. In recognizing their own limited knowledge and experience, a small number of practitioners felt unable to assess 'officially' other members of their staff.