[The participation in a clinical trial on pressure ulcer as an opportunity for education]

Participating to a clinical trial is not a common experience for nurses involved in the care of chronic patients. The experiences, reflections and lessons learnt by a group of nurses involved in the PARI study, a double blind randomised clinical trial on the efficacy of treatment of pressure sores are reported. The main problems and obstacles in participating to the study (asking informed consent to the patients; the organization of an 8 weeks follow up) are analysed. The overall impression is that the participation to a clinical trial improves the quality of care and knowledge of the patients and of the problems studied.