EUROPEAN PRESSURE ULCER ADVISORY PANEL

WOUND MANAGEMENT CD ROM REVIEW

The East London Wound Healing Centre has produced a very comprehensive study guide to the assessment and management of Leg Ulcers and Pressure Ulcers. This educational package has very clear objectives and is divided into two levels, level one is designed as a core text and is aimed at undergraduate students. It includes literature guides, case studies and questions. Level two is at a more advanced level and is aimed at qualified nurses and doctors.

Within Level 2 there are links to the Tower Hamlets own Wound Care Manual and Leg Ulcer/Pressure Ulcer Programmes which provides the user with valuable information to enable them to expand their knowledge base. There are also hyperlinks included to vitual websites and company web-sites for further product/equipment data.
Further sections address related areas such as, nutrition, radiological investigations, wound infection and microbiology and patient information. These sections complement the text and provide the user with extensive overall knowledge of the subject area.

This wound management package would provide a useful addition to both the Schools of Medicine/Nursing and to the individual student/learner. As adult learning moves more towards distance and computer-based learning perhaps future CD and web based developers of educational material should consider making applications for Continuing Education Points for Doctors who use the material, while nurses could be encouraged to record their outcomes of learning for the purposes of PREP.

Samantha Holloway RGN, Cert Ed (FE)
Education Assistant
Wound Healing Research Unit
University of Wales College of Medicine
Cardiff, Wales
May 2001

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Dear Michael,
I am pleased that several articles and abstracts address the issue of Quality of Life. However, Quality of Life in patients with ulcers does not depend on the ulcer alone. The new WHO classification disability uses the word dehabilitation to describe what happens to the whole person affected by disease. It is a process of decreasing attention to the whole person and loss of contact, rejection by friends and relatives. The quality of life for such a person may be impaired more by loss of such contacts than by the sickness itself. Loss of contact is determined by the 'Good looks' of the patient and the attractiveness of the patient to the carer. It is thus as important when managing pressure ulcers to improve the looks of the face and hair, the cleanliness and odour of the whole body, the brightness and odour of the environment and to have pictures on the walls which are attractive. All caretakers should speak to the patient when attending to their backside otherwise there is no reason for the patient to know that their existence is known to the carer other than as an ulcer.

Terence Ryan
Emeritus Professor in Dermatology
Oxford Brookes University