Volume 29 Number 3

With our horizons limited by Covid-related travel restrictions, it is more important than ever to experience and learn about our multicultural world through reading about wound-related research and practice in other jurisdictions and countries. Two such articles provide this important international insight and are included in this issue of the journal. The first by Obilor and colleagues describes the assessment of nurses’ knowledge, attitude and competence in wound assessment in a tertiary healthcare facility in southwest Nigeria. Here they found that many of the nurses surveyed were lacking in wound assessment competence, suggesting an important continuing need for education and skills development. The second internationally focused paper, by Yigit and Tas, describes the demography and injuries related to chemical burns in the southeastern Anatolia region of Turkey. The burn centre at the core of this study serves 10 million people in Diyarbakir and the surrounding 300km and is the only centre with an intensive care unit in southeast Turkey, a very different experience from what we would see in an Australian context.

While many practices may differ in international settings, it is always informative to learn about the experiences of others to help us consider new approaches to our own research and practice. In fact, continued education and upskilling is an important and integral part of the practice of wound management. So if performing lower limb wound assessments is part of your practice then the techniques paper by Tehan and colleagues for measuring toe systolic pressures will surely become a significant go-to resource.

The importance of the patient, both in respect to their education and their engagement with research, is central and the focus of two other articles in this issue. Patient and public engagement in research is reviewed by Tobiano and colleagues and the importance of developing frameworks to guide the development of strategies for building good partnerships is discussed alongside the recognition of the importance of patients as the rightful partners in their care. Latimer and colleagues also describe the feasibility and acceptability of patient education pressure injury prevention care bundles through a series of patient interviews and nurse focus groups. Here the authors highlight the key role that nurses have in educating patients about their care and outline strategies that can be used to increase patient participation.

Two scoping review protocols complete this jam-packed issue of the journal and we will eagerly await the results of these important reviews relating to acute wound management in Australia and pressure injury prevention. I hope you enjoy this latest issue of the Wounds Australia journal and continue to broaden your horizons in a Covid safe way.

Author(s)

Prof Allison J Cowin
Editor Wound Practice and Research