Client records : insights into clients and the services they are offered by a regional leg ulcer clinic in Queensland, Australia

Clinicians collect much data on their clients that is not for the purposes of undertaking research. However, periodic investigation of such data provides an opportunity to not only review the completeness of the documentation, but also to consider what is being undertaken within the service and what may be strengthened.This paper outlines the examination of two independent researchers of the client records of a small, private leg ulcer clinic in a regional Queensland city. The primary purpose of this examination was to establish an overall view of the clients attending the clinic and to identify aspects of the service that would benefit from future research.The results presented here provide a client profile that mostly fits with that outlined in the published literature. The process of examining these results highlighted the conscientiousness of clinicians and recording physical data relating to the clients and their wounds. It also raised the issue of how well psychological and social aspects of the clients were being addressed in formulating treatment regimes.