Development and evaluation of a DVD for the education of burn patients who were not admitted to hospital.

Patient involvement is an important component of burn care and is necessary to produce good outcomes. Patient education using multimedia resources is useful in facilitating self-management and recovery from burn injury. The study aims to provide and evaluate an instructional DVD to assist burn patients with their self-management. The project was divided into three phases: 1) research about the needs of patients, 2) production of the DVD based on those needs, and 3) evaluation of the effectiveness of the DVD. In phase III, 49 burn patients (73% male; median age 32 years, median TBSA 3%) completed a survey on confidence in their burn care before development of an educational DVD, the results of which were compared with those of 55 burn patients (58% male; median age 35 years, median TBSA 3%) who completed the same survey questions after viewing a burn care DVD. Patient confidence in all self-management activities showed a statistically significant improvement (P < .01). An instructional burns DVD improves confidence in self-management of patients who have not been admitted to hospital and is a useful adjunct to current burn practice.