ORIGINAL ARTICLE Development and Evaluation of a DVD for the Education of Burn Patients Who Were Not Admitted to Hospital Vidya Finlay, BSc(Phty),* Nishant Davidoss,† Cory Lei,† Juhui Huangfu,† Sally Burrows, BMath,‡ Dale Wesley Edgar, BPhty, PhD,* Suzanne Rea, FRCS,† Fiona M. Wood, FRACS† Patient involvement is an important component of burn care and is necessary to produce good outcomes. Patient education using multimedia resources is useful in facilitating self- management and recovery from burn injury. The study aims to provide and evaluate an in- structional DVD to assist burn patients with their self-management. The project was di- vided into three phases: 1) research about the needs of patients, 2) production of the DVD based on those needs, and 3) evaluation of the effectiveness of the DVD. In phase III, 49 burn patients (73% male; median age 32 years, median TBSA 3%) completed a survey on confidence in their burn care before development of an educational DVD, the results of which were compared with those of 55 burn patients (58% male; median age 35 years, me- dian TBSA 3%) who completed the same survey questions after viewing a burn care DVD. Patient confidence in all self-management activities showed a statistically significant im- provement (P < .01). An instructional burns DVD improves confidence in self-management of patients who have not been admitted to hospital and is a useful adjunct to current burn practice. (J Burn Care Res 2012;33:e70 – e78) Burn patients face significant challenges in short- and long-term recovery because of the complex physical and psychological nature of recovery after the injury. 1 The goal of burn care is to facilitate long-term func- tional and cosmetic outcomes in burn survivors to restore quality of life and assist reintegration into society. 2 Patient self-management has come into focus in recent times as healthcare providers aim for high- quality, cost-effective care. 2 Effective burn care in- volves collaboration between consumers and health services. 3 Western Australia is the largest state in Aus- tralia covering a vast 2,525,500 km 2 . Royal Perth Hospital (RPH) has the only adult burns unit in Western Australia and provides inpatient and outpa- tient care for a population of approximately 2.3 mil- lion Australians. 4 The Burn Service of Western Aus- tralia at RPH is a multidisciplinary healthcare service and offers comprehensive care to its patients includ- ing burns education. Multimedia formats have been proved to facilitate patient self-management in the areas of medicine such as diabetes and asthma. 5,6 DVDs, videos, and CD-ROMs offer convenient and consistent informa- tion through an interactive audiovisual medium that engages the viewer far more than traditional printed forms. 7 To date, little information on the use of mul- timedia in burn patient education has been published. One study produced and tested a burn management CD-ROM. 8 The results from the pilot study suggest the CD-ROM can be a simple, cost-effective method of delivering information to burn patients during their recovery. 8,9 Another study evaluated an educa- tional video and a five-page detailed handout on the use of silicone gel sheets. The authors found that patient compliance with treatment and scar outcomes were improved. 10 From the *Telstra Burns Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Unit, Royal Perth Hospital, Perth; †Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, The University of Western Australia, Crawley; and ‡School of Medicine and Pharmacology, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, Western Australia, Australia. Address correspondence to Vidya Finlay, BSc(Phty), Telstra Burns Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Unit, Royal Perth Hospital, Wellington Street, Perth, Western Australia 6000, Australia. Copyright © 2012 by the American Burn Association. 1559-047X/2012 DOI: 10.1097/BCR.0b013e318239d555 e70