Putting wound care in the spotlight at Nursing Live

Wound care is a cornerstone of nursing practice which is why we are putting it in the spotlight at Nursing Live and Una is leading the way.

One of Nursing Live’s many topics is wound care, with NHS England’s National Wound Care Strategy Programme (NWCSP) director Una Adderley set to give an update on new national standards. Una’s session will also outline NWCSP's proposal for system-wide strategies across hospital and community settings to ensure those with wounds get the right care as early as possible.

Commenting on wound care, and the role of nurses, Una said: “Most nurses, whatever their discipline, deliver some form of wound care, and over 50% of community nursing workload is wound care related. As a result, nurses are seen by other health professions as the clinical leaders in this area.

“However, despite the centrality of wound care in so much nursing practice, few nurses receive adequate wound care education in their pre or post-registration education. Further, wound care does not receive the recognition of other medically led clinical specialties when it comes to commissioning of services. 

“Many in the general nursing community also remain unaware of the work of the NWCSP. My session at Nursing Live will therefore signpost nursing staff to the available resources and opportunities. It will also raise awareness about how all nurses who care for people with wounds need to play their part in the drive to improve wound care, releasing considerable nursing capacity, especially in community nursing services, and improving patient experience.”

Una also recently outlined some of these issues in a Nursing Standard article. The piece highlighted how the new NHS standards are targeting assessment and consistency in wound care, focusing on documentation, investigating underlying causes, and multidisciplinary work.

Dealing with chronic wound care, and educating patients in self-care of wounds which can reduce the costs to the health service and save lives, were also explored. RCNi subscribers can access the story here.

Una’s Nursing Live presentation, A National Update on Wound Care, will be hosted in Learning Lab 1 on Friday November 10 at 11.25 am. This will be followed by a case study on the Minuteful for Wound app and the role of digital technology in improving patient safety.

For more details of these session, and the many other talks and discussions running throughout Nursing Live, visit our fully searchable event guide.