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A warm welcome to Scotland for delegates to the European Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel Open Meeting, May 2005.
What will be the highlights of this event? The theme of the conference is 'back to basics - the fundamental aspects' and was prompted by previous EPUAP conferences which attempted to define what improvements organisations such as EPUAP had made to pressure area care. It was quickly realised that without an exploration and confirmation of the fundamental issues within pressure ulcer prevention and treatment the impact of EPUAP and other bodies could not be addressed. Perhaps for delegates the two key sessions will be the presentation of two EPUAP position statements - one on measuring pressure ulcer incidence and prevalence; the second tackling the confusion between true pressure ulcers and apparently similar wounds that arise through contact with moisture (sweat or urine in particular). This newsletter will summarise these draft position statements over the coming months for they are controversial - for example the prevalence statements will call for a minimum of four prevalence surveys per institution each year. What impacts will such a statement have for your place of work, and for your work-load? Full details of the EPUAP conference, its programme and over the coming months the abstracts from the papers presented in Aberdeen will be available on the EPUAP web-site www.epuap.org with the key elements summarised through this newsletter.
To mark the 25th Birthday of the Tissue Viability Society there will be a major two-day TVS conference to be held at the National Motorcycle Museum in Birmingham in late April 2006. Keep your eyes on this newsletter and on the TVS web-site www.tvs.org.uk for further details.
Over the years we have become accustomed to reading reports of the amount of pressure applied by beds, mattresses and cushions to vulnerable locations on the body such as the heels. We have become accustomed to such information and perhaps somewhat cynical when comparisons of pressures are used to reinforce sales messages? Regardless of our views on the significance of interface pressure measurements one piece of the jigsaw is typically missing. To date measurement of shear forces has not been routinely achieved primarily due to the difficulty of capturing this data. What are shear forces? These are the forces acting parallel to the skin surface and act to stretch or twist skin and soft tissue and have often been described as acting where individuals are semi-recumbent. In reality every time we are in contact with the external world shear forces exist although their magnitude may be small (when standing) or large. Shear forces have been considered to reduce the amount of tissue compression needed to depress local skin blood flow and as such have a presumed role to play in pressure ulcer development. Given advances in the technologies available to measure forces and pressures there is now a groundswell of opinion that routine measurement of shear in clinically relevant situations may at last become achievable. A new initiative began in Tampa Florida this February when members of the EPUAP met for dinner with US colleagues from the National Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel to discuss shear. It was agreed that a meeting would take place in Aberdeen this May to explore how working together the EPUAP and NPUAP could realise the goal of measuring shear. This important event will be held on the afternoon of the 7th May in Aberdeen and should mark an important step forward to the improvement of our understanding of the causes of pressure ulcers. Further details of the meeting can be obtained from the EPUAP at www.epuap.org.
Each issue of this newsletter will reproduce a number of references to new and notable publications on pressure ulcers gathered from the world-wide literature. Some of the references will be drawn from publications familiar to UK readers while others will be brought to your attention from perhaps more obscure sources. The overall effect will be to highlight that clinical and scientific interest in pressure ulcers is worldwide and that we should look beyond our regular magazines and journals if we want to see the full picture! In future reference lists specific themes will be explored for example support surfaces and pressure ulcer prevention. If you have any suggestions for themes for these focussed pressure ulcer reference lists that you believe would be of interest to readers of this newsletter then let Wounds UK or the editor know! Anthony D, Reynolds T, Russell L. The role of hospital acquired pressure ulcer in length of stay. Clinical Effectiveness in Nursing 2004;8(1):4-10. Arboix i Perejamo M, Torra i B, Rueda Lopez J, Soldevilla Agreda JJ, Martinez Cuervo F, Garcia Gonzalez F, et al. Results of the 1st National Study of Prevalence of PU in Spain [Spanish]. Gerokomos 2004;15(3):167-74. Bale S, Tebble N, Jones V, Price P. The benefits of implementing a new skin care protocol in nursing homes. Journal of Tissue Viability 2004;14(2):44-50. Barnes S. The use of a pressure ulcer risk assessment tool for children. Nursing Times 2004;100(14):56-8. Baumgarten M, Margolis D, van Doorn C, Gruber-Baldini AL, Hebel JR, Zimmerman S, et al. Black/White differences in pressure ulcer incidence in nursing home residents. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society 2004;52(8):1293-8. Bours GJ, Halfens RJ, Candel MJ, Grol RT, Abu-Saad HH. A pressure ulcer audit and feedback project across multi-hospital settings in the Netherlands. International Journal for Quality in Health Care 2004;16(3):211-8. Butcher M. Risk of pressure damage for women using maternity services. Nursing Times 2004;100(41):46-7. Defloor T, De Bacquer D, Grypdonck MH. The effect of various combinations of turning and pressure reducing devices on the incidence of pressure ulcers. International Journal of Nursing Studies 2005;42(1):37-46. Defloor T, Grypdonck MFH. Validation of pressure ulcer risk assessment scales: a critique. Journal of Advanced Nursing 2004;48(6):613-621. Defloor T, Schoonhoven L. Inter-rater reliability of the EPUAP pressure ulcer classification system using photographs. Journal of Clinical Nursing 2004;13(8):952-9. Eitzen I. Pressure mapping in seating: a frequency analysis approach. Archives of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation 2004;85(7):1136-40. Fader M, Bain D, Cottenden A. Effects of absorbent incontinence pads on pressure management mattresses. Journal of Advanced Nursing 2004;48(6):569-74. Frias Soriano L, Lage Vazquez MA, Maristany CP, Xandri Graupera JM, Wouters-Wesseling W, Wagenaar L. The effectiveness of oral nutritional supplementation in the healing of pressure ulcers. Journal of Wound Care 2004;13(8):319-22. Gould D, Goldstone L, Kelly D, Gammon J. Examining the validity of pressure ulcer risk assessment scales: a replication study. International Journal of Nursing Studies 2004;41(3):331-9. Graham J. Heel pressure ulcers and ankle brachial pressure index. Nursing Times 2005;101(4):47-8. Gunningberg L, Ehrenberg A. Wound care. Accuracy and quality in the nursing documentation of pressure ulcers: a comparison of record content and patient examination. Journal of WOCN 2004;31(6):328-35. Jolley DJ, Wright R, McGowan S, Hickey MB, Campbell DA, Sinclair RD, et al. Preventing pressure ulcers with the Australian Medical Sheepskin: an open-label randomised controlled trial. Medical Journal of Australia 2004;180(7):324-7. Mathus-Vliegen EM. Old age, malnutrition, and pressure sores: an ill-fated alliance. Journals of Gerontology Series A-Biological Sciences & Medical Sciences 2004;59(4):355-60. Mayrovitz HN, Sims N. Effects of support surface relief pressures on heel skin blood flow in persons with and without diabetes mellitus. Advances in Skin & Wound Care 2004;17(4 Pt 1):197-201. Young T. The 30 degree tilt position vs the 90 degree lateral and supine positions in reducing the incidence of non-blanching erythema in a hospital inpatient population: a randomised controlled trial. Journal of Tissue Viability 2004;14(3):88, 92-6.
Talley Medical is part of the Talley Group Ltd who has been involved in the medical supplies industry for over 50 years, designing, manufacturing and supplying pressure ulcer prevention and therapy products to customers globally. The company was founded in 1953 by Henry Talley, grandfather to present Directors Chris and John Evans. Talley Group Ltd is the largest privately owned company within their industry and developed the first alternating pressure mattress manufactured in Europe. All research development and manufacturing takes place at custom designed Head Offices based in the south of England, enabling us to conceptualize, design, manufacture and test on site. As well as ISO9001 approval Talley Group Ltd have also been assessed and registered to EN46001 and ISO13485 standards for quality management Talley Medical offer nationwide sales, rental and technical services for a wide range of pressure relief mattresses and seating systems, Hospital and community bed frames including Bariatric patient management products and compression therapy equipment. To support the comprehensive product range, Talley Medical has developed a range of services that reflect our understanding of the needs within the NHS, nursing home and home care environment. Extensive product and clinical education programmes can be provided by trained personnel and tailored to meet individual customer needs. A Nationwide service support network with locally based service centers and a fleet of custom equipped vehicles manned by fully trained technicians offer a range of services. The easy to repair and maintain modular systems means products can be serviced and maintained quickly on site therefore minimizing any disturbance to the patient and healthcare provider. Additional support includes, product tracking, management reporting and asset management, full product thermal and chemical decontamination of equipment in our in house custom designed decontamination facility Web: www.talleygroup.com
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May 2005 marks the first visit of the European Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel (EPUAP) to Scotland. Over May 5-7th around 500 delegates from all over the world will congregate in Aberdeen for the 8th Open Meeting of the European Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel (EPUAP). This annual meeting dedicated solely to discussions around pressure ulceration has not been held in the UK since 1998 when the EPUAP met in Oxford with Aberdeen beating off strong competition from other venues in Scotland and Ireland to host this prestigious meeting.
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In 2006 the UK Tissue Viability Society reaches a significant milestone - the association will have been in existence as a national membership organisation for 25 years! This makes the Tissue Viability Society (TVS) probably the oldest wound care organisation in the world! As the elder statesman of tissue viability you might expect the TVS to work at a slower pace that it did through the heady days of the last 1980's when interest and investment in pressure ulcers appeared to increase daily. Although a mature organisation there has been no evident reduction in the pace of activities within the TVS. This year the EPUAP and TVS have joined forces with the TVS hosting a one-day conference on May 4th in Aberdeen immediately preceding the opening of the EPUAP conference. This joint venture helps both associations - for the TVS it offers access to the world stage with three presentations during the TVS day delivered by Italian, French and American speakers while for the EPUAP the strong national representation afforded by TVS delegates helps bring the actions of the EPUAP to the attention of the host country. For delegates there is an opportunity to attend both TVS and EPUAP conferences in 2005 with a minimum of disruption to work schedules. This is increasingly important as the number of wound care conferences and events appears to increase each year demanding we all give up more and more work time to keep fully abreast of new developments or we become very selective regarding which events we support to the detriment of many excellent conferences. Working together makes sense; for us as individuals, for our employers, for associations and for the commercial sector that supports so much of wound care.
May 2005 |
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