Wet to Dry

By: Nancy Morgan, RN, BSN, MBA, WOCN, WCC, CWCMS, DWC

In the modern world of wound care, there are many treatment options. Surprisingly though, we are still seeing orders for those dreaded wet-to-dry dressings. Using a wet-to-dry dressing involves placing moist saline gauze onto the wound bed, then allowing it to dry and adhere to the tissue in the wound bed. Once the gauze is dry, the clinician removes the gauze, with force often required. This has to be repeated every 4 to 6 hours. Wet-to-dry dressings are a nonselective debridement method that harms good tissue as well as removes necrotic tissue. It keeps the wound bed at a cool temperature and it at risk for bacterial invasion, as bacteria can penetrate up to 64 layers of gauze! It’s one of the most painful procedures for our patients, and this was one treatment that as a nurse I never wanted to do. In fact, I have heard of nurses who would remoisten the gauze before removal to make the treatment more bearable for patients.

Are you seeing a lot of these dressing still used in current practice? What types of settings are they still being used in consistently? How are you dealing with the prescribing clinicians who continue to order this treatment even though it’s considered a substandard practice for wound care?

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DISCLAIMER: All clinical recommendations are intended to assist with determining the appropriate wound therapy for the patient. Responsibility for final decisions and actions related to care of specific patients shall remain the obligation of the institution, its staff, and the patients’ attending physicians. Nothing in this information shall be deemed to constitute the providing of medical care or the diagnosis of any medical condition. Individuals should contact their healthcare providers for medical-related information.

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I call shotgun!

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

Ahhh—the front seat, shotgun, the good spot, the privilege-to-sit-in and most coveted of all positions when riding in a car. Those are great words if you’re the caller to stake your claim for the front seat, but not so great if you’re the one stuck in the back seat.

In the world of health care, wound and skin care unfortunately never gets to ride shotgun. It seems like we always get the back seat unless there’s a problem. Think back to your college days. Do you remember Wound and Skin Care 101 and the torture of memorizing all 2,000 wound care products on the market, the endless case studies and wound differentiation quizzes? No? Well neither do I. If your schooling was like mine, you learned about sterile dressing changes, wet-to-dry dressings, Montgomery straps, and if you were lucky, how to apply an ostomy bag.

Granted, I went to nursing school in the 1970s. But things haven’t changed much. Wound care still gets the back seat when it comes to educational priorities. A survey by Ayello, Baranoski, and Salati of 692 registered nurses found that 70% considered their basic wound care education to be insufficient and fewer than 50% of new nurses believed they could consistently identify pressure ulcer stages. Another survey of nursing textbooks revealed students could be exposed to as few as 45 lines of text on pressure ulcers.

It’s not just lack of nursing education, but also poor physician education. As reported in a poster by Garcia and colleagues, only 8 of 50 medical residents scored more than 50% on a 20-question test measuring pressure ulcer knowledge, with a high score of 65% (range, 13.04% to 76.09% correct).

It’s time for a change, and I’m excited to be a part of a new tool to help move wound and skin care education to the front seat: Wound Care Advisor, the official journal of the National Alliance of Wound Care (NAWC). With its “Don’t just tell me, but show me” approach, the journal will feature plenty of photographs, step-by-step instructions, and video how-to’s. If you’re like me and prone to attention deficit, you’re in luck. We’ll keep things practical and to the point, with a “learn it today and do it tomorrow” mantra.

Another cutting-edge feature of the journal is the electronic-only format; this isn’t a print journal. The no-paper format will help us declutter our lives and minimize our ecological footprint. Not to worry, though: With our print-on-demand feature, you can always print out individual articles or even the entire journal if you want.

In keeping with NAWC principles, Wound Care Advisor is geared toward all care settings and a multidisciplinary audience. This isn’t just the NAWC journal; it’s your journal. We need you to help us move wound care from the back seat to the front seat of the car by sharing your knowledge and passion for wound and skin care. Call or e-mail us your case studies, best practices, tools, forms, wound photos, or even feedback about the journal.

I truly believe that together, you, I, NAWC, and Wound Care Advisor can move wound and skin care education to the front seat. I look forward to working with you on the ride to the coveted shotgun seat.

Donna Sardina, MHA, RN, WCC, CWCMS
Editor-in-Chief
Wound Care Advisor
Cofounder, Wound Care Education Institute
Plainfield, Illinois

Selected references
Ayello EA, Baranoski S. Examining the problem of pressure ulcers. Adv Skin Wound Care. 2005; 18:192-194.
Ayello EA, Baranoski S, Salati DS. A survey of nurses’ wound care knowledge. Adv Skin Wound Care. 2005;18(5 Pt 1):268-275.
Ayello EA, Meaney G. Replicating a survey of pressure ulcer content in nursing textbooks. J Wound Ostomy Continence Nurs. 2003;30(5): 266-271.
Garcia AD, Perkins C, Click C, Bergstrom N, Taffet G. Pressure ulcers education in primary care residencies. Poster session presented at 19th Annual Clinical Symposium on Advances in Skin & Wound Care. September 30-October 3, 2004; Phoenix, Arizona.

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Wound Healing Improves With New Bioactive Peptide Combo

bioactive peptide

By combining bioactive peptides, researchers have successfully stimulated wound healing in an in vitro and in vivo study. The studies, published in PLoS ONE, show that the combination of two peptides stimulates growth of blood vessels and promotes tissue re-growth of tissue. Further research into these peptides could potentially lead to new therapies for chronic and acute wounds.

The researchers evaluated a newly-created peptide, UN3, in pre-clinical models with the goal of simulating impaired wound healing as in patients suffering from peripheral vascular diseases or uncontrolled diabetes. They discovered that the peptide increased the development of blood vessel walls by 50%, with an 250% increase in blood vessel growth, and a 300% increase in cell migration in response to the injury. (more…)

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Contact Us

Advertising and marketing questions:

Tyra London | WoundCareAdvisor.com Strategist | 215-489-8999 | [email protected]

Executive Management

Greg Osborne | President | HealthCom Media | 215-489-7001 | [email protected]

Subscription information

Chris Evans Gartley | Production Director | 215-489-7004 | [email protected]

 
 
 
 
 
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Advertise

Reach over 65,000 healthcare providers interested in wound and ostomy products with our economical advertising opportunities – starting as low as $500 per month.

The new and improved WoundCareAdvisor.com is ready!  Consider adding our unique educational web destination as a budget-friendly way to interact with an audience of over 65,000 wound care professionals every month without breaking the bank!

WoundCareAdvisor.com is the perfect environment to promote your products and/or services. Wound Care Advisor provides vital insight from authoritative experts that empower healthcare providers treating wounds every day through collaborative, practical, how-to peer-reviewed editorial and trusted resources. The website’s content offers something for everyone. (more…)

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Author Guidelines

Wound Care Advisor, is dedicated to delivering succinct insights and information that multidisciplinary wound team members can immediately apply in their practice and use to advance their professional growth. If you’re considering writing for us, please use these guidelines to help choose an appropriate topic and learn how to prepare and submit your manuscript. Following these guidelines will increase the chance that we’ll accept your manuscript for publication

Wound Car Advisor Journal CoverAbout the journal

Wound Care Advisor serves as a practical resource for multidisciplinary skin and would care specialists. The journal provides news, clinical information, and insights from authoritative experts to enhance skin and wound care management. Wound Care Advisor is written by skin and wound care experts and presented in a reader-friendly electronic format. Clinical content is peer reviewed. It also serves as a resource for professional development and career management.

The journal is sent to Certificants of the National Alliance of Wound Care and Ostomy and other healthcare professionals, who are also dedicated to improving skin and wound care.

Editorial profile

Each issue of Wound Care Advisor offers compelling feature articles on clinical and professional topics, plus regular departments. We publish articles that present clinical tips and techniques, discuss new or innovative treatments, provide information on technology related to wound care, review medical conditions that affect wound healing such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease, address important professional and career issues, and other topics of interest to wound care specialists.

We accept submissions for these departments:

Best Practices, which includes case studies, clinical tips from wound care specialists, and other resources for clinical practice

Business Consult, which is designed to help wound care specialist manage their careers and stay current in relevant healthcare issues that affect skin and wound care.

We also welcome case studies. Please use the WCA Case Study Template as a guide

Before you submit an article…

Please send a brief email query to [email protected]. In the email, state 1) the topic of your proposed article, 2) briefly describe what the article will include, 3) provide a short summary of your background, and 4) explain why you’re qualified to write on this topic. We will respond whether or not we are interested in the article you have proposed.

Tips on writing for Wound Care Advisor

Our journal is written in simple, concise language. The tone is informal, and articles are short to medium in length (about 600 words for departments and 1200 words for feature articles). When writing the manuscript, follow these guidelines:

  • Wound Care Advisor is a clinical practice journal, so keep your information practical. Give examples that readers will relate to.
  • Although our tone is informal, the content of your article must be evidence-based, including key research findings, clinical practice guidelines and relevant standards as applicable.
  • Address readers directly, as if you’re speaking to them. Here are some examples:”As a wound care specialist, you’re probably familiar with …..””After removing the dressing, measure the wound….”
  • Use active—not passive—verbs. Active verbs engage the reader and make the writing more interesting.Sentence with a passive verb: Wound edges should be assessed for undermining.Sentence with active verb (preferred): Assess the wound edges for undermining.
  • Don’t use acronyms or abbreviations, except those you’re sure every reader is familiar with (such as “I.V.”). Instead, spell out the full term.
  • When mentioning a specific drug, give the drug’s generic name first, followed by the brand name in parentheses (if relevant).
  • Consider using boxed copy (a sidebar) for points you’d like to emphasize, clarify, or elaborate on. Also consider putting appropriate information in tables (in MS Word format). DO NOT USE MS Word’s “Insert text box” feature for sidebars. Instead, label the sidebar appropriately and put it at the end of your manuscript, after the article itself.
  • Wound Care Advisor is a digital journal, a format that encourages reader interaction. If possible, please include in your manuscript at least two links to websites, videos, or other electronic resources that would be helpful to readers.
  • Do not cite references within the text. List them in alphabetical order. References must be from professionally reliable sources and should be no more than 5 years old.

For reference style, use the American Medical Association Manual of Style: A Guide for Authors and Editors (10th ed). If you don’t have access to this book, include at least the following information for each reference you cite:

For a book: author(s), book title, edition (if appropriate), place of publication, publisher, and publication date

For a print journal article: author(s); article title; journal name; year, volume; inclusive page numbers

For online references: URL (web address) and the date you accessed the website.

About tables, photos, and illustrations

We encourage you to submit tables, photographs, and illustrations for your article (although we can’t guarantee we’ll publish them).

  • Submit them in a separate electronic file. Identify the source of each table, photo, or illustration and include a brief caption or label (e.g., “Illustration #1: Preventing complications from diabetes. From American Diabetic Association, 2006″). In the body of your article, indicate where the photo or illustration should be placed (e.g., “Insert Illustration #1 here.”) If you believe specific items in the photo or illustration should be identified, tell us this in a note. (Be aware that any person whose image is shown in a photograph must sign a consent form that gives us permission to publish it.)
  • Do not embed tables, figures, or images in the same file as the body of your article. Also, do not submit any text in a box or otherwise put rules around it, above, or below it. Instead, label this copy as a sidebar and submit it in a separate word file or at the end of the main article.
  • Authors are responsible for obtaining permission for material with a copyright. That includes figures, tables, and illustrations from other journals. It’s best to obtain permission before you submit the article and include documentation that you’ve received permission and any specific credit line that must be printed with the image. However, in cases where you must pay to use an image, note in the submission that you will obtain permission if the article is accepted for publication.

Important cautions

The article must be your own original work. Do not submit material taken verbatim from a published source.

How to submit your article

Submit your manuscript electronically as an MS Word file. Follow these guidelines:

  • At the top of the first page of the document, place the article title, your initials (not yourname), and the date.
  • DO NOT include extra hard returns between lines or paragraphs, extra spaces between words, or any special coding.
  • Send a separate cover letter that includes your name; credentials; position; address; home, cell, and work telephone numbers; email address; and your employer’s name, city, and state.
  • Email the article and any other attachments to [email protected] and [email protected].

What happens to your manuscript after submittal?

  • You will receive an email confirming receipt.
  • If your manuscript contains clinical information and we believe it has publication potential, we will send it out for blind peer review (neither you nor the reviewers will know who wrote the article). All manuscripts also receive an internal editorial review. After the review, we’ll let you know whether the manuscript has been accepted, accepted pending revisions, or declined.
  • If we accept your manuscript for publication, we’ll ask you to sign an agreement that gives HealthCom Media (publisher of Wound Care Advisor) the rights to your article so that it can be published. Each author must sign a separate agreement.
  • Your article will go through our in-house editorial process, where professional editors ensure consistency with our editorial style. You will have a chance to review the edited version before it’s published.
  • We will email you if we decide not to publish your manuscript.

Thank you for considering publishing in Wound Care Advisor, the official journal of the National Alliance of Wound Care and Ostomy, the official. If you have any questions, please email: Cynthia Saver, RN, MS, at [email protected] or [email protected].

Copyright © 2017, HealthCom Media. All rights reserved.

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Editorial Advisory Board

Editor-in-Chief

Donna Sardina, RN, MHA, WCC, CWCMS, DWC, OMS
Co-Founder
Wound Care Education Institute
Lake Geneva, IL

Editorial Advisory Board

Nenette L. Brown, RN, PHN, MSN/FNP, WCC
Wound Care Program Coordinator
Sheriff’s Medical Services Division
San Diego, CA

Debra Clair, PhD, APN, RN, WOCN, WCC, DWC
Wound Care Provider
Alliance Community Hospital
Alliance, OH

Kulbir Dhillon, NP, WCC
Wound Care Specialist
Skilled Wound Care
Sacramento, CA

Fred Berg
Vice President, Marketing/Business Development
National Alliance of Wound Care and Ostomy
St. Joseph, MI

Cindy Broadus, RN, BSHA, LNHA, CLNC,
CLNI, CHCRM, WCC, DWC, OMS

Executive Director
National Alliance of Wound Care and Ostomy
St. Joseph, MI

Gail Hebert, MSN, RN, CWCN, WCC, DWC, OMS
Clincal instructor
Wound Care Education Institute
Plainfield, IL

Joy Hooper, BSN, RN, CWOCN, OMS, WCC
Owner and manager of MedicalCraft, LLC
Tifton, GA

Catherine Jackson RN, MSN, WCC
Clinical Nurse Manager
Inpatient and Outpatient Wound Care
MacNeal Hospital
Berwyn, IL

Jeffrey Jensen DPM, FACFAS
Dean & Professor of Podiatric Medicine and Surgery
Barry University School of Podiatric Medicine
Miami Shores, FL

Rosalyn S. Jordan, RN, BSN, MSc, CWOCN, WCC
Director of Clinical Education
RecoverCare, L.L.C.
Louisville, KY

Jeff Kingery
Vice President of Professional Development
RestorixHealth
Tarrytown, NY

Jeri Lundgren, RN, BSN, PHN, CWS, CWCN
Vice President of Clinical Consulting
Joerns
Charlotte, NC

Nancy Morgan, RN BSN, MBA, WOC, WCC, DWC, OMS
Co-Founder, Wound Care Education Institute
Plainfield, IL

Steve Norton, CDT, CLT-LANA
Co-founder, Lymphedema & Wound Care Education, LLC
President, Lymphedema Products, LLC
Matawan, NJ

Lu Ann Reed, RN, MSN, CRRN, RNC, LNHA, WCC
Adjunct Clinical Instructor
University of Cincinnati
Cincinnati, OH

Bill Richlen, PT, WCC, CWS, DWC
Owner
Infinitus, LLC
Chippewa Falls, WI

Cheryl Robillard,PT WCC, CLT
Clinical Specialist
Aegis Therapies
Milwaukee, WI

Stanley A Rynkiewicz III, RN, MSN, WCC, DWC, CCS
Administrator
Deer Meadows Home Health and Support Services LLC
BHP Services
Philadelphia, PA

Donald A. Wollheim, MD, WCC, DWC, FAPWCA
Owner and Clinician, IMPLEXUS Wound Care Service, LLC
Watertown, WI
Instructor for Wound Care Education Institute
Plainfield, IL

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About

GOAL

WoundCareAdvisor.com is a unique educational web destination that has been designed to be a trusted, timely and useful resource for healthcare professionals dealing with chronic wounds and ostomy management issues.  Offerings on the site currently include  (more…)

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