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  • 1 July 2020 to 31 March 2021
  • Project No: 487
  • Funding round: FR19

Background

Cellulitis is a common infection of the skin that often occurs on the lower leg. It is painful, can be serious and cause long-term complications such as leg swelling that will not go down. Approximately a third of people with leg cellulitis have repeat episodes, which can lead to frequent use of antibiotics. Some take antibiotics every day in order to prevent repeat episodes. Other possible ways to prevent repeat episodes include: increased foot hygiene, applying regular moisturising cream and compression stockings. Nurses who work in general practice (practice nurses) and nurses that see people at home (community or district nurses) play an important role in managing long-term leg swelling, wounds, skin care and other risk factors for cellulitis. 

Aim

We aim to explore the views of primary care nurses (practice, community and district nurses) on how to help people manage risk factors for cellulitis.

Research Plan

We will interview 25-30 primary care nurses. We will audio-record the interviews and conduct a qualitative analysis in order to understand their perspectives on the most important messages for managing cellulitis. 

Involvement of Patients and the Public

People who have had cellulitis have told us in previous interviews and an exercise to identify research priorities for cellulitis that they would like more research on reducing the risk of repeat episodes. For this study we have a patient collaborator who will contribute to the study design, development of study materials and interpretation of findings.

Output

The results of this study, along with our previous study of patient views, will help us to design a larger study to develop and test engaging and effective support tools (website, videos, booklets, etc.) to help people with cellulitis reduce the risk of having further episodes of cellulitis. This may reduce their need for repeated courses of antibiotics.

Co-applicants

Ingrid Muller, Nick Francis, Miriam Santer

 

Amount awarded: £22 578.00

Projects by themes

We have grouped projects under the five SPCR themes in this document

Evidence synthesis working group

The collaboration will be conducting 18 high impact systematic reviews, under four workstreams.