A Cross-sectional Survey of Health Professionals Across Australia and New Zealand to Determine What Outcome Measures Are Important From a Clinical Perspective Post Hand Burn Injury

Outcome measures are used in healthcare to evaluate clinical practice, measure efficiencies and to determine the quality of health care provided. The Burns Trauma Rehabilitation: Allied Health Practice Guidelines advocates for the collection of outcome measures post burn injuries across different time points. These guidelines recommend multiple tools which can be utilized when measuring outcomes post burn injuries. The aim of this study was to gather information from specialist clinicians regarding their clinical practice and the outcome measurement tools used post hand burn injuries. This cross-sectional study used a survey design to collect data at one given point in time across a sample population. A total of 43 clinical specialists allied health professionals responded to the survey. Respondents indicated that their patients considered hand dexterity was the most important outcome. Three months post burn injury was the most common timepoint for measurement (n= 31, 72.1%) followed by six months (n= 27, 62.8%). Patient report of hand function (n= 42, 97.7%) and observation (n= 41, 95.3%) were the most frequently reported assessment methods. The Jamar Dynamometer (n= 40, 93%), goniometer (n= 39, 90.7%) and pinch gauge (n= 36, 83.7) were the most frequency cited assessment tools. The findings of this study suggest that clinical specialist allied health collect some outcome measures in their routine practice. Based on the respondent’s perceptions of barriers when using outcome measures and lack of reliable/validated tools to measure hand burn outcomes, there is a need for further studies in this area.