Happy New Year! I make no apologies for writing this in the first Tissue Viability Supplement of the year. In January, I was on a celebratory vacation with my husband and friends. While we were away, I took the opportunity to attend a presentation about looking after your skin. I was rather surprised that so many people were naïve or misinformed about the biggest organ of the body, which they live and function in. I also saw more sunburn than I expected – people are not taking the very clear messages on board. At a Wound Care Alliance UK (WCAUK) conference several years ago, I encouraged you all to share more essential skin information with your friends and families. This now seems more important than ever.
Essential skin and wound care remains a key priority and a significant concern. The health secretary has acknowledged that unacceptable standards of care are being delivered in the NHS (Smith, 2025). A survey of around 5000 nurses in December reported waiting times reaching 50 hours, patients in urine-soaked or soiled clothing, and corridor care becoming a new normal (Royal College of Nursing, 2025). This level of care does not allow for essential skin care.
I was heartened by a conversation with an 82-year-old lady in my village, who took my advice and went to see her practice nurse about her non-healing lower leg wound. She told the practice nurse that ‘a Professor in Wound Healing had been rather insistent that she get help….’ The practice nurse disbelievingly said ‘Really?’ and just turned back to her computer. An update: her leg is now being dressed twice weekly and she is ‘having a Doppler’ this week. I am keeping an eye on progress.
While watching an episode of Call the Midwife on BBC iPlayer recently, set in the early 1970s, I saw a dry dressing being applied directly to a surgical wound. It prompted me to consider the delivery of evidence-based care. Nationally, there is an agenda for this set out in the Primary Care and General Practice Nursing Career and Core Capabilities Framework (Health Education England and Skills for Health, 2022). Having the appropriate woundcare skills and competencies is viewed as increasingly essential and the core capabilities framework has three tiers:
- Tier 1: capabilities that require a general understanding and that support provision of primary care/general practice nursing
- Tier 2: capabilities that enable the provision of care more independently and with a degree of critical analysis
- Tier 3: capabilities that require an ability to provide care autonomously and independently, an ability to lead practice, operating at the cutting edge of innovation.
Woundcare educational resources are also available from Skills for Health (2024).
The conference season will soon be under way. The WCAUK will be holding its annual conference on Thursday 22 May 2025 in Bristol, with a focus on what is new in the key areas of tissue viability. Further details are available via the website (www.wcauk.org). Additionally, the Editor of the BJN, Sophie Gardner, will be presenting on writing for publication and James Burford will be presenting on artificial intelligence (AI). James and I will be writing a short article on AI and wound care and will be asking for your questions about AI so that we can support you in this rapidly developing area. The WCAUK is fortunate to have two new trustees: Sylvie Hampton, a highly regarded independent consultant nurse in tissue viability and Chris Hill, formerly MD of Creed Medical, becomes the trustee responsible for commercial liaison.
The Society of Tissue Viability conference runs from 30 April to 1 May in Bradford (visit: societyoftissueviability.org). The European Wound Management Association conference is in Barcelona, 26 to 28 March (further details at www.ewma.org).
This new year offers a range of opportunities to improve our education, have an impact on the care we deliver and share some of our knowledge. My recent travels and the current NHS challenges confirm that this is very much needed.