ABSTRACT:
In remote areas, community turns up. When a patient needs hospitalisation, not only do the community often raise funds, but they also travel to the hospital. The Northern Provincial Hospital in Vanuatu serves all the northern islands and people can travel for days to reach their needed care. This provides an opportunity to disseminate bite-sized medical information on diabetic foot care to this invested audience to be spread back across to areas difficult to reach through standard health channels. After consultations with healthcare staff, patients and their families, we identified that the education on foot care and wound identification would be the most beneficial. Surveys were carried out on a sample of the current bedside cohort (n=10) to assess the current level of understanding and confidence in discussing diabetic foot care measures. Downloadable infographics were developed explaining pictorially the best practice for foot care of patients with diabetes. Post intervention questionnaires and unstructured interviews were repeated with the initial cohort to access how many community members had studied and shared the information. Initial data shows increased awareness of both the importance of best practice foot care measures (30%). Provisional results also show a high level of reported confidence in talking to friends and family about the hygiene resources (7.9/10). Videos clips in local languages were suggested to enhance comprehension. The development of a picture-based, interactice online course would allow for more granular checking of understanding. Using the bedside-time spent by community members for education increases confidence in discussing important diabetic foot care measures. This project highlights the potential of opportunistic education, and for remote and rural knowledge amplification, to communities in a hospital setting.