Presented by Urgo

The growing need to jumpstart wound progression

Now, more than ever, we are facing the reality of a backlog of wound care patients who have not sought treatment or have only received limited treatment in the past few months. As wound care clinicians, we are called to find creative and simple solutions to get patients back on track and on a path to healing. The first step is tackling multiple barriers to wound healing leading to a prolonged and costly inflammatory phase.

Introducing a new simple approach to actively fight against infection

Active removal of bacteria from deep tissue combined with sustained antimicrobial effect

- Drawtex actively draws bacteria, harmful MMPs, and biofilm nutrients out and away from the wound

- UrgoTul Ag is proven to facilitate wound progress with a sustained broad-spectrum antimicrobial barrier

Presented by Mölnlycke Health Care

Examine exciting new evidence on the effectiveness of an affordable multipurpose support surface system that makes sense in any care setting.

When persons awaken at night to solely relieve the urge to urinate it is called nocturia. Nocturia is not just a nuisance. It is disruptive to sleep which has many serious medical consequences.

Unfortunately, nocturia is commonly and erroneously attributed to urological causes: an enlarge prostate in men and an overactive bladder in women. In fact, nocturia is most frequently caused by nocturnal polyuria, which is often secondary to serious medical conditions.

Diagnosing and treating nocturia, or more correctly, nocturnal polyuria, provides appropriate intervention of medical conditions causing these common symptoms, while preventing additional harm promoted and perpetuated by the disruption of sleep.

We will explore the different appearances of ostomy mucosa, looking for evidence of infection, inflammation, and neoplasia. The goal will be to understand what is within the realm of normal and what warrants special attention.

Recent literature regarding skin failure, pressure injury, moisture-associated skin damage, and friction skin injury has expanded information providing additional clarification for healthcare providers to classify tissue injury. However, there is a unique tissue injury on the buttocks that is not captured in the current classification systems. Specifically, this tissue injury is characterized as purple maroon discoloration, with or without skin breakdown, located on the fleshy portion of the buttocks not necessarily over a bony prominence. The tissue injury has two distinguishing factors; the injury results in a chronic skin condition and the discoloration does not resolve or deteriorate. Currently, there is not a classification for this type of injury, which in turn leads to incorrect identification, disparate classification, and poor interrater reliability. The focus of this lecture is to raise awareness of this unique tissue injury. Ultimately, the goal is to have consistent terminology to describe tissue injury in skin classification systems for correct and reliable selection by all healthcare providers.

In addition, the lecture will cover how the authors identified the clinical problem and the process it took to bring the clinical issue to publication. We sincerely hope to stimulate clinical nurses in the field to publish their ideas. Clinical practice drives healthcare reform, and there is a great need for publications to substantiate the evidence.

Development of the FEEDS Team at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (Feeding Education & Enteral Discharge Support Team)

A GUIDE FOR ENTERAL NUTRITION SUPPORT PATIENTS

The FEEDS Team is a service dedicated to helping patients who are discharged from the hospital on tube feedings. The team provides to this patient population: inpatient education; nutritional guidance; discharge coordination; and outpatient follow-up.

The FEEDS Team is part of the Center for Nutrition Support at UPMC Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition.

This session will provide attendees with the latest recommendations from the 4th edition of the Guideline for Management of Wounds in Patients with Lower-Extremity Venous Disease (LEVD), updated from a systematic search of databases and a systematic review and synthesis of literature published August 2010 through December 2017. The review included studies reporting primary data relevant to LEVD and venous leg ulcers (VLUs) and specific therapies or diagnostic modalities. A summary of the recommendations for assessment, prevention and management of LEVD and VLU risk reduction, wound management, compression therapy, adjunctive therapies, medications, nutrition, surgical options, and patient education and health care follow-up will be presented along with level and quality of evidence, and benefit/effectiveness/harm classification for all recommendations.

This session with discuss the workup and management of patients with neurogenic bladder dysfunction. Many clinicians are not comfortable assessing and managing neurogenic bladder dysfunction. This session will outline an organized and very pragmatic approach to these sometimes complex patients.

Fully one-third of the older adult population has foot problems that can lead to decreased mobility and independence. Foot problems such as corns, calluses, dry and cracking skin, and long or thick toenails can be managed through proper self-care, potentially increasing quality of life and functional status. Until recently, no tools existed to measure the presence and severity of nail and skin conditions that can be improved through self-management. The Foot Health Score, a 15-item, quantitative, provider assessment of skin and nail conditions amenable to self-management, had not undergone psychometric testing. Investigators refined the FHS tool and then evaluated content validity, discriminate validity, intra-rater reliability, and sensitivity to change.

This country is experiencing a decline in health not seen for a hundred years. Life expectancy is going down and mortality going up. The public is mostly unaware. What can health care workers do? What they are best at: communicating and caring. We need strong 'medicine' to reverse our health decline. This will require disclosing the problem, and galvanizing support for major changes in the richest and most powerful country in world history.