Article topics: Lower limb, Lymphovenous disease, Oedema, Wound Care, Wounds
District nursing teams are under increasing pressure to cope with demands on their time and the skills to meet the needs of their local community. The author’s local nursing team has been struggling to manage the clinical skill mix required to meet the complex needs of their patients with lower leg wounds who should be treated with compression therapy. The task of managing compression therapy was mainly undertaken by nurses, but it was proving extremely time-consuming — especially when patients needed leg washing and compression treatment for bilateral leg wounds. After successfully using a Velcro™ compression system, a six-month evaluation of juxta products for the leg ulcer pathway was proposed for one community nursing team. This project was undertaken with an initial cohort of 17 patients to evaluate if switching to this product could help to improve the use of the team’s skill mix and reduce costs on wound products from the formulary by improving wound healing rates.