Margaret Heale
RN, MSc, CWOCN
Margaret Heale has a clinical consulting service, Heale Wound Care in SE Vermont and performs foot and nail care in patient homes. Margaret also runs a Wound Treatment Associate course that accepts long distance candidates. She arrived in the United States over 15 years ago from England and wrote ‘Wet-to-dry Dressings: Fact & Fiction’, (Armstrong, Price 2004) as her dissertation for her masters degree in wound care.
Getting her WOCN has broadened her outlook into ostomy and continence care and she values the interaction with the Connecticut valley Ostomy support Group that she helps to organize. Special interests are creating partnerships in care by being an innovative, enthusiastic educator. A holistic approach is central to nursing practice which she feels should always focus on the individual and ways in which their needs can be met.
By Margaret Heale, RN, MSc, CWOCN
Medical device–related pressure injuries (MDRPIs) are recognized as a significant problem, evidenced by the inclusion in the National Pressure Injury Advisory Panel pressure injury definitions and described by Pitman and Gillespie in 2020.1...
By Margaret Heale, RN, MSc, CWOCN
It is important for nurses to strive toward excellence. Our patients deserve the best we are able to give, and sometimes we need to look critically at how we care and how we might improve outcomes. In theory, we update practice because we read...
By Margaret Heale, RN, MSc, CWOCN
I had shopped before lockdown and had not needed to go to a supermarket for a while. Before my first big shopping event, I came across this online video: preventing your kitchen getting contaminated from your shopping. I smiled at the thought of...
By Margaret Heale, RN, MSc, CWOCN
Nurses week, which took place in May, may have fallen a little flat this year, as employers were not able to gather staff and celebrate as they might otherwise have done, but the caring continues. As a group, we have been recognized as essential...
By Margaret Heale, RN, MSc, CWOCN
As patient-driven groupings model hits home care, patients or their caregivers will be expected to do more of the care. Subsequently, nursing staff are expected to provide more education, making "how to" information more crucial than ever.
By Margaret Heale, RN, MSc, CWOCN
Oral health is more than just important. As a child in a family supported by the state, we could afford hot water for a bath only once a week, but I cleaned my teeth twice a day and had regular dental visits. At school, we were...
By Margaret Heale, RN, MSc, CWOCN
Not very long ago, when working in an in-patient rehab center, I was shocked to discover patients calling the adult incontinence garments "hospital underwear." We were making good inroads into reducing the use of these products with the hope that...
By Margaret Heale, RN, MSc, CWOCN
In the United Kingdom, we are well into spring. As I look at the garden, there are patterns of growth literally cut into rock. Old stones with beautiful mosses, and next to a stone step, one type of rock plant has thrown up five stems and atop...
By Margaret Heale, RN, MSc, CWOCN
"Must Love Dogs (Cats, Lizards, Snakes, Birds, AND Arachnids)." This is a line that needs to be next to all job advertisements for home health care staff. You see, I am a dog lover, not because I love dogs but because I have a way of being able...
By Margaret Heale, RN, MSc, CWOCN
In our point, click, fill-in-the -blanks world of ever increasing wound care algorithms and MOs, I have an ax to grind (straight into my so-called smart phone if I had the courage).
By Margaret Heale, RN, MSc, CWOCN
Having read a recent article on clean versus sterile dressing technique, commenting again on this issue seems highly appropriate. The conclusion of the paper essentially is that a clean technique for acute wound care does not affect the incidence...
by Margaret Heale RN, MSc, CWOCN
Wound care can be so straightforward. The process starts with a comprehensive assessment, and then the wound care regimen can be planned and the frequency of dressing changes determined. A well-written order will include all of the relevant...
by Margaret Heale RN, MSc, CWOCN
The research lecturer's name was Terry, and he had my respect and attention. Many of the students were dreading the research modules but were cheered by the prospect of Terry taking us through it.
By Margaret Heale RN, MSc, CWOCN
I watched a short PowerPoint DVD on the "bag technique" as part of our regular in-servicing the other day. The presentation started with the most important way to prevent cross infection—wash hands—which is fine. Then came the bag technique. I...
By Margaret Heale RN, MSc, CWOCN
Wrapping wounds is an art, and hence, it comes easily to some and more difficult to others. This post won't make you a wound dressing artist, but it does provide some tips for good bandaging techniques. The word "bandage" (in the US) often refers...
By Margaret Heale RN, MSc, CWOCN
Wounds are dressed every day, and much goes into the choices that are made to properly apply wound dressings. The condition of the periwound skin should be a major factor in the decisions made, as injuring this area can extend the wound and cause...
By Margaret Heale RN, MSc, CWOCN
Like many people, you might go to recycling every month or so and be proud to deliver a few black bags of rubbish, and recycle most everything else. Many of you may have a thriving compost heap (mine is frequented by the biggest and fattest...
Margaret Heale, RN, MSc, CWOCN
"Personalized medicine" is apparently a new concept that has evolved from taking good family histories, then adding a genetic testing component. The idea is to help assess the risk of specific traits that may be evident, and confirm with genetic...
By Margaret Heale, RN, MSc, CWOCN
This past fall, I attended the New England WOCN Society regional conference. While I am still processing all the great information that I absorbed there, I'd like to share with you some of the important discussions that came up on the topics of...
By Margaret Heale, RN, MSc, CWOCN
Looking back on a previous New England WOCN Society regional conference I attended, it strikes me that there where several impressive items discussed relating to the topic of pressure injuries.
By Margaret Heale, RN, MSc, CWOCN
I was not at the April National Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel (NPUAP) meeting, but I do think some of critical commentary that has followed the announcement of the pressure injury staging system changes is flawed. Clearly designating the...
By Margaret Heale, RN, MSc, CWOCN
Stepping forward into a model of care that is quantitative and objective is essential and most definitely the way we are headed in wound care and beyond. Using the word "care" in the same sentence with "quantitative" and "objective" may sound...
By Margaret Heale, RN, MSc, CWOCN
It has become quite easy to look at pressure ulcer prevention in most health care settings. From acute care, through the ED and on to the OR and ITU, then to the various floors of med surg, orthopedic, not forgetting rehab and community nursing....
By Margaret Heale, RN, MSc, CWOCN
Most of the residents here are elderly, though some of the more acute rehab patients are quite a bit younger than me. We actually have five women over a 100 out of 116 people, quite impressive with the eldest being 105 years old. As for me, I am...
By Margaret Heale, RN, MSc, CWOCN
People can be open with few secrets and little to hide but even then there are behaviors, memories, hopes, fears and desires that are not revealed. We have a right to be in control of this part of ourselves and the flesh that encompasses it. Such...
By Margaret Heale, RN, MSc, CWOCN
Matron Marley is back after a small break (that allowed me to vent about the lack of 'clean' with a clean dressing technique).
Yy Margaret Heale, RN, MSc, CWOCN
Hi blog buddies, Matron Marley here. I may be an ex-matron, but I may just have some gems for you. Today I would like to cast the threads (strings even) of time back to when I was a new nurse rather than a matron. The reason being the change...
By Margaret Heale, RN, MSc, CWOCN
Another day at Rose Cottage is over and I am remembering some events and pondering as I wait for my granddaughter to finish work and drop me off home. I have been volunteering here a while now and am getting used to being in a position of...
By Margaret Heale, RN, MSc, CWOCN
I was in the shower getting ready for my day volunteering at the nursing home and my mind bemoaned again how much I miss bathing. Relaxing in a deep hot bath, preferably with bubbles, background music and a cool drink...heavenly! Then I started...
By Margaret Heale, RN, MSc, CWOCN
I have been living with my daughter for almost a year and helping out at a nursing home where my granddaughter works. I don't remember having this problem last year but my skin is just on fire at times, itchy, itchy, itchy! I found a cream but...
By Margaret Heale, RN, MSc, CWOCN
It's Matron Marley here again. I do hope you had a good Thanksgiving folks. My daughter ordered Chinese and her offspring were thrilled. I snuck away to the nursing home where I volunteer and had nut roast with the residents (who had turkey, of...
By Margaret Heale, RN, MSc, CWOCN
So after I last wrote, I was to assist with a dressing change, as the resident is more relaxed with somebody having their focus on her and not also trying to do the procedure. I have done a million or two dressings in my time but had not seen a...
By Margaret Heale, RN, MSc, CWOCN
Well it's me again, Matron Marley. I got in through the door no problem today. My granddaughter dropped me off as she is doing some MDS training. I am feeling more comfortable as a volunteer now that I have visited a few times. When talking to...
By Margaret Heale, RN, MSc, CWOCN
Here I am again, Matron Marley, working as a volunteer in the local nursing home on just my second visit. I had a little difficulty getting in and discovered it was because of the door lock alarm on a resident. Such a good idea but a bit...
By Margaret Heale, RN, MSc, CWOCN
Well, I was a matron such a long time ago when we still had candy stripers and you swallowed tablets or wrote on them with chalk. My granddaughter is doing some work at a local nursing home and offered to show me around. I held my breath as we...