Skin Failure

My colleagues, Barbara Delmore PhD, RN, CWCN, MAPWCA and Jill Cox PhD, RN, APN-c, CWOCN, and I have written a paper,1 available electronically ahead of print, that reviews the skin failure concept, defines related controversies, and proposes a model for its pathogenesis. Like all other organs, skin can fail; however, experts continue to grapple with definitions, causative factors, and manifestations.

By Jeffrey M. Levine MD, AGSF, CWS-P As Co-Chair of the NPUAP Education Committee it is my pleasure to invite all clinicians to the NPUAP Biennial Conference in New Orleans from March 10 to 11, 2017. Featured topics will include best practices for staging and treatment, pressure injury recidivism, and pressure injury as a quality measure. In addition to these timely topics, NPUAP will host a full day featuring national experts who will discuss terminal ulceration, skin failure, and unavoidable pressure injury. Attendees are invited to submit cases that illustrate these lesions, and a select number of submissions will be presented for discussion with the group.

By Jeffrey Levine MD Please join me Thursday, November 16 from 3:00-4:00pm EST for a free webinar presented by myself and Elizabeth A. Ayello, PhD, RN, ACNS-BC, CWOCN, ETN, MAPWCA, FAAN sponsored by the National Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel (NPUAP), entitled, Unavoidable Pressure Injuries, Terminal Ulceration, and Skin Failure: Where Are We and Where Are We Going?

By Lindsay D. Andronaco RN, BSN, CWCN, WOC, DAPWCA, FAACWS In the past two blogs I have discussed a controversial topic, skin failure. We all have strong feelings on this topic and have experienced different cases in our practice. Dispute the controversial feelings on KTUs and skin failure; I would like to now just address the viewpoint of the family and how to approach these difficult conversations.

by the WoundSource Editors Palliative care and hospice care are not the same, but they both share one goal. They both focus on a patient's physical, mental, social, and spiritual needs. Palliative care can begin at diagnosis and treatment or for patients at any stage of their illness. Patients may not want to receive aggressive treatment of non-healing wounds because of underlying diseases, pain, and/or cost.

by Heidi H. Cross, MSN, RN, FNP-BC, CWON "If a patient is cold, if a patient is feverish, if a patient is faint, if he is sick after taking food, if he has a bed sore, it is generally the fault not of the disease, but of the nursing." —Florence Nightingale Ouch! What an indictment of nursing and, by extension, the facility in which the nurse works. We have a lot to thank Florence Nightingale for—a brilliant woman considered to be the founder of nursing and nursing standards and the first to ever put statistics to health care, among other valuable contributions.

By Heidi Cross, MSN, RN, FNP-BC, CWON "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." – Charles Dicken When Charles Dickens wrote this introduction to his Victorian-era novel, A Tale of Two Cities, his novel was aimed at the brewing French Revolution, but he could have been writing about the best and worst of modern American health care. His novels depicted how life could be pretty miserable during those times, with no social safety net and no real medical care. Fortunately, times have changed, and we have improved social supports as well as, some would argue, the best health care system in the world (although, sadly, not all people in the United States enjoy access to our great health care system, but I digress).