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Ankle-brachial index: A dirty word?

May 21, 2015February 25, 2020 Wound Care Advisor

Donna Sardina, RN, MHA, WCC, CWCMS, DWC, OMS

Silence, roving eyes, fidgeting, excuses, a quick subject change—these are typical responses from healthcare clinicians when asked, “What’s the patient’s ankle-brachial index?” You’d think someone had just uttered a dirty word.

The ankle-brachial index (ABI) is a key component of the lower-extremity vascular exam, recommended and in some cases mandated by numerous clinical practice guidelines, including the most recent international guidelines on preventing and treating pressure ulcers. (more…)

A collaborative approach to wound care and lymphedema therapy: Part 1

May 19, 2015February 25, 2020 Wound Care Advisor

By Erin Fazzari, MPT, CLT, CWS, DWC

Have you seen legs like those shown in the images below in your practice? These images show lymphedema and venous stasis ulcers, illustrating the importance of collaboration between clinicians in two disciplines: lymphedema and wound care. (more…)

Finding common ground: Surviving wound care communication

April 6, 2015February 25, 2020 Wound Care Advisor

By Jennifer Oakley, BS, RN, WCC, DWC, OMS

The author describes how to overcome challenges to effective communication in the healthcare setting.

Accurate communication among healthcare professionals can spell the difference between patient safety and patient harm. Communication can be a challenge, especially when done electronically. With an e-mail or a text, you can’t hear the other person’s voice or see the body language, so it’s easy to misinterpret the words. (more…)

Palliative wound care: Part 2

April 6, 2015February 25, 2020 Wound Care Advisor

This approach brings patient-centered care to life.

By Gail Rogers Hebert, MS, RN, CWCN, WCC, DWC, OMS, LNHA

Editor’s note: This article is the second in a two-part series on palliative wound care. For the first part, click here.

By preventing and relieving suffering, palliative care improves the quality of life for patients facing problems associated with life-threatening illness. This care approach emphasizes early identification, impeccable assessment, and treatment of pain and other issues—physical, psychosocial, and spiritual. (more…)

More from The Buzz Report: A wound care clinician’s best friend

April 6, 2015February 25, 2020 Wound Care Advisor

By Donna Sardina, RN, MHA, WCC, CWCMS, DWC, OMS

Keeping clinicians up to date on clinical knowledge is one of the main goals of the Wild On Wounds (WOW) conference,held each September in Las Vegas. Each year, I present the opening session of this conference, called “The Buzz Report,”which focuses on the latest-breaking wound care news—what’s new, what’s now, and what’s coming up. I discuss innovative new products, practice guidelines, resources, and tools from the last 12 months in skin, wound, and ostomy management. (more…)

Healthcare reform and changes provide opportunities for wound care clinicians

February 9, 2015February 25, 2020 Wound Care Advisor

By Kathleen D. Schaum, MS

Qualified healthcare professionals (QHPs), such as physicians, podiatrists, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, and clinical nurse specialists, are taught to diagnose the reasons that chronic wounds aren’t healing and to create plans of care for aggressively managing the wound until it heals. Wound care professionals—nurses and therapists—are taught to implement those plans of care. All of these highly skilled wound care professionals know how to manage chronic wounds from identification through healing. (more…)

Translating the language of health care

February 9, 2015February 25, 2020 Wound Care Advisor

By Catherine E. Chung, PhD, RN, CNE, WCC

As a wound care clinician, you teach patients about medications, wound treatments, the plan of care, symptoms of complications, wound physiology—you teach a lot. And most patients probably smile and nod when you ask, “Do you understand?” However, health literacy research has shown that only 12% of the U.S. population is fluent in the language of health care. As health care has become increasingly complex, it has become increasingly difficult for patients to understand. Fortunately for your patient, you can translate. (more…)

Make your patient-teaching idea a patented reality

November 20, 2014February 25, 2020 Wound Care Advisor

By Joy Hooper, BSN, RN, CWOCN, OMS

Have you ever had an idea for improving patient care that you wanted to market? You may have lacked confidence or know-how, as I once did. But one patient, a crafty idea, and a trip to Walmart put me on the path to becoming a successful nurse entrepreneur. (more…)

Burn Wounds Protected by Plastic-wrap-like nanosheets

August 13, 2014February 25, 2020 Wound Care Advisor

The nanosheets act like Saran Wrap for wounds.

Like cling wrap, new biomaterial can coat tricky burn wounds and block out infection.

Wrapping wound dressings around fingers and toes can be tricky, but for burn victims, guarding them against infection is critical. Today, scientists are reporting the development of novel, ultrathin coatings called nanosheets that can cling to the body’s most difficult-to-protect contours and keep bacteria at bay.

The researchers are speaking about their materials, which they’ve tested on mice, at the 248th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world’s largest scientific society.

The meeting features nearly 12,000 presentations on a wide range of science topics and is being held here through Thursday. (more…)

Using maggots in wound care: Part 1

July 21, 2014February 25, 2020 Wound Care Advisor

By: Ronald A. Sherman, MD; Sharon Mendez, RN, CWS; and Catherine McMillan, BA

Maggot therapy is the controlled, therapeutic application of maggots to a wound. Simple to use, it provides rapid, precise, safe, and powerful debridement. Many wound care professionals don’t provide maggot therapy (also called wound myiasis) because they lack training. But having maggot therapy technology available for patients adds to your capabilities as a wound care provider. (more…)

Creating effective education programs on a shoestring budget

July 21, 2014February 25, 2020 Wound Care Advisor

By Jennifer Oakley, BS, RN, WCC, DWC, OMS

It’s time again for annual staff education, and you, the certified wound clinician, need to teach the staff at your organization. You dream of staff entering a state-of-the-art classroom with computers at each station, mannequins, wound anatomy models, and enough products for each student to do hands-on demonstrations. But when you open your eyes, you’re sitting in a room with ordinary tables and chairs, your laptop, a screen, a brain full of knowledge, and a very tight budget. (more…)

Eating better to help manage chronic stress

May 22, 2014February 25, 2020 Wound Care Advisor

By Debra Rose Wilson, PhD, MSN, RN, IBCLC, AHN-BC, and Dana Marie Dillard, MS, HSMI

Like many clinicians, you may experience stress frequently, both on and off the job. Chronic stress can alter your equilibrium (homeostasis), activating physiologic reactive pathways that cause your body to shift its priorities. Physiologic effects of stress may include:

slowed digestion
delay in reproductive and repair processes
priming of survival mechanisms (respiratory, cardiovascular, and muscular) for immediate use
depletion of the body’s nutrients.

(more…)

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