Wound education: American medical students are inadequately trained in wound care

Millions of patients are treated annually in the United States with either acute or chronic wounds, costing billions of dollars. This is a retrospective study designed to quantify the directed education that medical students receive in their 4 years of training on 3 wound-related topics: physiology of tissue injury, physiology of wound healing, and clinical wound healing. The mean hours of education in physiology of tissue injury at 50 American medical schools are 0.5 hours and 0.2 hours, respectively, in the first year and second years and none in the third and fourth years. The mean hours of directed education in the physiology of wound healing are 2.1 hours and 1.9 hours in the first and second years. The data in our study show there is scant directed education in relevant wound topics in American medical schools. Considering the immense economic and social impact of wounds in our society, more attention should be paid to the education of our physician trainees on this important topic.