Page 226 - Psychology of Wounds and Wound Care in Clinical Practice ( PDFDrive )

The Impact of Social Support on Health 201

studies, particularly those with chronic wounds is lacking.
Charles ( 2010 ) did explore the influence of social support on
leg ulcer healing. In a group of patients with venous leg
ulcers they found that social support through a community
nurse was not related to healing. However, although social
support was assessed through a questionnaire route, social
support was not enhanced or developed. Furthermore, many
of the patients were socially isolated due to their leg wounds
and the findings appeared to support the suggestion that a
visit to an isolated individual by community nurses did not
meet the clients’ needs for social support, information
exchange and empathy. Consequently, there may be a need
for more formal social support interventions (Lindsay 2000 ,
;
2008 see next section).
Similarly, supportive social relationships have been dem-
onstrated to be fundamental in patients adapting to illness as
well as recovering from it (e.g. Keeling et al. 1996 ). However,
not all social support is equally beneficial and it has been
demonstrated that there are sometimes negative conse-
quences of social support- dependency or the inhibition of
recovery due to a lack of control and desire to take control of
their own illness (e.g. Toshima et al. 1990 ). Indeed, some
health care professionals wonder whether a proportion of
patients want to keep their ulcers to maintain contact with
their social support- their community nurses- for social con-
tact and support (Brown 2003 ; Wise 1986 ; Brown 2005a , b ;
Moffatt et al. 2009 ). For instance, it has been suggested that
some patients will deliberately delay their wound healing
(e.g. take their bandages off after being treated the nurse) so
their social contact with the district nurse can continue.
However, it is not clear how many patients may do this, and
needs to be further explored along with the underlying rea-
sons and potential solutions for any significant problem
identified. Furthermore, it has been reported by Charles
( 2010 ) that patients do not see nurses as social support con-
tacts nor do they want to keep their ulcers in order to main-
tain this contact. Finally, it is also important to note that not
all social support should be provided by nurses and other