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Practical Issues in Wound, Skin and Ostomy Management
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…)
Read MoreThis 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…)
Read MoreBy Donna Sardina, RN, MHA, WCC, CWCMS, DWC, OMS Editor-in-Chief
During a recent wound care presentation, an audience member jumped up to contradict the speaker. “That is incorrect,” she asserted. “The rules state….” When someone asked her what rules she was referring to, she replied, “The government’s rules.”
On the surface, that might seem like a straightforward answer. But when you stop to think about it, what government did she mean? Federal? State? Local? (more…)
Read MoreGuidelines for optimal off-loading to prevent diabetic foot ulcers
“The management of diabetic foot ulcers through optimal off-loading,” published in the Journal of the American Podiatric Medical Association, presents consensus guidelines and states the “evidence is clear” that off-loading increases healing of diabetic foot ulcers.
The article calls for increased use of off-loading and notes that “current evidence favors the use of nonremovable casts or fixed ankle walking braces as optimum off-loading modalities.” The authors reviewed about 90 studies. (more…)
Read MoreBy 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…)
Read MoreBy Nancy Morgan, RN, BSN, MBA, WOC, WCC, DWC, OMS
Each issue, Apple Bites brings you a tool you can apply in your daily practice.
Medical gauze, a bleached white cloth or fabric used in bandages, dressings, and surgical sponges, is the most widely used wound care dressing. Commonly known as “4×4s,” gauze is made from fibers of cotton, rayon, polyester, or a combination of these fibers. Surgical gauze must meet standards of purity, thread count, construction, and sterility according to the United States Pharmacopeia. (more…)
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In 2014, more than 8,000 new articles related to wound healing were added to the PubMed online database and hundreds of new patents for topical wound formulations were filed. Staying up-to-date with the latest and greatest findings and products can be challenging. We all lead busy lives, and our demanding work schedules and home responsibilities can thwart our best intentions. Although we know it’s our responsibility to stay abreast of changes in our field, we may feel overwhelmed trying to make that happen. (more…)
Read MoreBy Gail Rogers Hebert, MS, RN, CWCN, WCC, DWC, OMS, LNHA
The World Health Organization defines palliative care as “an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing the problem associated with life-threatening illness, through the prevention and relief of suffering by means of early identification and impeccable assessment and treatment of pain and other problems, physical, psychosocial and spiritual.” (more…)
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By Ronald A. Sherman, MD; Sharon Mendez, RN, CWS; and Catherine McMillan, BA
Note From the Editor: This is the second of two articles on maggot therapy. The first article appeared in our July/August 2014 issue, Read part 1 here.
Whether your practice is an acute-care setting, a clinic, home care, or elsewhere, maggot debridement therapy (MDT) can prove to be a useful tool in wound care. But setting up any new program can meet resistance—and if you seek to establish a maggot therapy program, expect to meet significant resistance. By arming yourself in advance, you can achieve your goal more easily. This article covers all the bases to help you get your maggot therapy program off the ground. (more…)
Read MoreBy Hedy Badolato, RD, CSR, CNSC; Denise Dacey, RD, CDE; Kim Stevens, BSN, RN, CCRN; Jen Fox, BSN, RN, CCRN; Connie Johnson, MSN, RN, WCC, LLE, OMS, DAPWCA; Hatim Youssef, DO, FCCP; and Scott Sinner, MD, FACP
Despite the healthcare team’s best efforts, not all hospitalizations go smoothly. This article describes the case of an obese patient who underwent bariatric surgery. After a 62-day hospital stay, during which a multidisciplinary team collaborated to deliver the best care possible, he died. Although the outcome certainly wasn’t what we wanted, we’d like to share his story to raise awareness of the challenges of caring for bariatric patients. (more…)
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