The Senior Specialist Nurse in Wound Management at the Ashford and St Peter's Hospitals NHS Trust, Sue Harris, will shortly be sharing her American Scholarship experience with colleagues Surrey-wide.

Said Sue, who was one of only six UK nurses out of 75 applicants to win the educational scholarship: “America was absolutely amazing. I had the opportunity to meet Wound, Osotmy and Continence Nurses and observe them working. We visited Wound Care Clinics, including Hyperbaric Oxygen chambers and we also had formal teaching from a Consultant Vascular Surgeon and a Specialist Wound, Ostomy and Continence Nurse.”

The UK nurses were surprised to see that in Texas they were no longer using sterile (aseptic) techniques for changing dressings. For example, our sterile gloves come as a pair in a sealed packet, but there they would use clean gloves from an opened box. 

One of aims of the scholarship was for the UK nurses was to see the versatility of the vacuum assisted closure (VAC) equipment with its negative pressure wound therapy, together with the special foam dressings.  The negative pressure encourages new blood vessels to grow and so brings extra oxygen to the bottom of the wound to help it heal.

Said Sue: “At the Trust we have been using the VAC system for about eight years. It gives us an alternative way of dealing with wounds and for some patients this can mean getting home faster if their wounds heal more quickly. It was interesting to see the different ways in which VAC therapy was used in America and means that I can bring this knowledge back to the Trust.    

One of the very interesting things was to learn of the use of 750 hyperbaric oxygen centres in the United States where patients have up to 30 “dives” in individual chambers at a cost of $1000 per dive. During the “dive”, which can last up to two hours, the added pressure results in more oxygen being brought to the affected wound area, resulting in increased healthy cells being reproduced to help the wound heal.  On the UK there are only a handful of such centres, mainly on the coast and in the London area one at WhippsCross University Hospital.

KCI manufacture specialist beds and equipment and we had the opportunity to see their special turning beds as well as their latest beds and chairs forbariatric (obese) patients.

The UK nurses were also interested to learn that unlike the strict uniform policy here, nurses in Texas have to buy and pay for their own uniforms, making a uniform policy impossible to impose. 

Said Sue: “This results in some rather bizarre dressing and, of course, it was totally alien for us to see patients being treated by nursing staff wearing many different styles and colours of uniforms, jewellery and hair not tidied back!”

While in Texas Sue gave a presentation to the other UK nurses and their hosts.  She has now written a formal report about what she learnt out there together with recommendations which she is presenting next month (Feb) to the 22 “link” nurses at the Trust. These are ward based trained nurses who, as well as all the other work they do, take the lead on, and promote, wound management within their areas. Later in the spring she will speak to a group of professional colleagues– the Surrey Tissue Viability Nurses Group.

Said Sue:  I feel I gained a lot of new knowledge from the trip which I am looking forward to sharing with my colleagues for the benefit of our patients.  And, I’m pleased to say, I also made some very good friends.”