Experiences of nurses within a nurse-led multidisciplinary approach in providing care for patients with diabetic foot ulcer

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Diabetic foot ulcers require special attention due to their complex and chronic nature and special care and the Nurse-led approach has emerged in the current situation in response to the increasing need for health care as a way to treat chronic patients and provide them with ongoing care. Providing this specialized duty in nursing can be promoted and enhanced the professional independence of nurses and presents challenges. This study has been conducted to make an understanding of the nurses’ experiences about their participation in a nurse-led multidisciplinary team to providing care for patients with Diabetic Foot Ulcer. METHODS: This was a qualitative, phenomenological research, carried out with the participation of 8 nurses of Shariaty Hospital of Tehran. Data collection was done through in-depth and semi structured interview. Dieklemann method was used for data analysis. RESULTS: 2 themes and 4 categories emerged during data analysis: antecedents (background and nursing skills) and manifestation of multidisciplinary function (from despair to tranquility, professional worthiness, promotion of self-confidence, preference of multidisciplinary approach). CONCLUSION: The findings of this study, which were the lived experiences of the participants, indicated that most of them had experienced positive effect of nurse-led multidisciplinary team care, training and development, appropriate skill mix, quality and outcome of care. Therefore, despite working on a multidisciplinary team is complex and demanding, management attributions and communication strategies is well situated to meet the challenge.