In each issue we investigate a hot topic currently affecting you and your community practice. Here, we ask "What will the Year of the Nurse and Midwife mean for the UK’s community staff?"
Health and social care have seen significant pressures over the last few years, namely:
Captain Fearless is a nine-year-old girl who battles Wheeze Monsters with just her inhalers, spacer, bicycle bell and her magic goggles. The Big Bad Wolf has developed asthma and needs children’s help to know which inhaler to take and when, to blow the piggies’ house down.
I’m a nurse that tells stories with a health message. And I’m writing this editorial to encourage you to do the same and to explain why you should.
On 18th November 2019, the Queen’s Nursing Institute (QNI) launched a new initiative — the International Community Nursing Observatory (ICNO). The purpose of the ICNO is to gather and analyse robust data to support the QNI’s policy, communications and campaigning around the
October played host to UK Malnutrition Awareness Week (MAW), and with it a real opportunity to focus on the realities of this often underplayed issue within health and social care.
Wound care costs are rising in the UK. Therefore, improved systems of care to address the clinical and economic burden on our healthcare provision is needed (Guest et al, 2015). It is reported that most chronic wounds contain biofilm. With an increasing understanding and acceptance of the role of biofilm within non-healing wounds, it is now widely recognised that wound treatment plans should incorporate methods to address the potential presence of biofilm (International Wound Infection Institute [IWII], 2016). The longer a wound remains open, the greater the risk of a biofilm developing and infection risk increasing (Percival et al, 2017).
Managing chronic oedema has a significant impact on NHS resources, especially in the primary care setting. As services continue to focus on care closer to home, and the population continues to age, this is only going to create more challenges for primary care teams in terms of resources, managing complex conditions and supporting older people in their own homes. Primary healthcare professionals come across older adults with chronic oedema more frequently than other healthcare professionals, and often have no formal training in the management of the complexities of the condition. Adapting to meet the growing needs of this patient group will require a change to current thinking and practice. This article discusses the management of chronic oedema and how using current evidence relating to inelastic compression devices can aid practitioners to be more efficient and effective in meeting these challenges, i.e. managing patients with chronic oedema and compression therapy, and provides case studies to support the use of these devices in primary care.
Chronic wounds are a growing problem in the UK, impacting on patients quality of life as well as vital healthcare resources. Preventing and managing biofilms is fast becoming a primary objective in wound care treatment. Poloxamer-based surfactants, which target biofilms, are emerging as an effective treatment of chronic wounds. Surfactants have been shown to play an active role in cleansing, desloughing, debridement, prevention, disruption and removal of biofilms. This article explores the role of biofilms in wound development — how to prevent, identify and treat them. It also looks at surfactants, such as poloxamer, which is showing promising results in the management of wound biofilm. One particular poloxamer-based surfactant, known for its anti-biofilm capabilities and contained within the UCS™ debridement cloth, is discussed in this article.
