IN THIS ISSUE OF JWOCN
This issue of the Journal of Wound, Ostomy and Continence Nursing (JWOCN) provides a comprehensive collection of the latest evidence and clinical practice insights for the entire WOC and Foot & Nail Care specialty practice community. I recommend starting with the View From Here authored by Evidence-Based Report Card Section Editor Dr. Carolyn Crumley, who shares essential insights regarding odor management and patient dignity.
This issue's Foot & Nail Care section features an article by Pu Cheng, Yunxian Dong, Zhicheng Hu, Shaobin Huang, Xiaoling Cao, Peng Wang, Hailin Xu, Jiayuan Zhu, and Bing Tang, who report on a study examining the relationship between a serum marker (serum albumin level) and postoperative healing in patients undergoing surgical management of diabetic foot ulcers. This article qualifies as must read for every Foot & Nail, WOC, and wound care nurse seeking to identify an objective and reliable indicator of wound-healing potential in complex patients with diabetes mellitus and severe foot ulcers.
This issue's Challenges in Practice article also qualifies as must read for every WOC and ostomy nurse managing patients with fecal or urinary ostomies. Tomohiro Toyoda, Shinji Mitsuyama, Eri Nagao, Fumihito Abe, Masaaki Kimura, Yurie Seido, and Tetsuya Higuchi describe topical management of 3 patients with peristomal pyoderma gangrenosum. You will want to read this article to gain insights into diagnosis and topical treatment of refractory pyoderma gangrenosum, one of the greatest challenges to peristomal skin health and maintenance of an effective pouching system.
The second article in this issue's Challenges in Practice section is one of 2 articles in this issue of JWOCN examining the role of platelet-derived autologous topical treatments for enhancing chronic wound healing. Victoria Munoz, Ander Pino, Carmen Martinez, Begona Echevarria, Varlan Lacramioara, and Eduardo Anitua report on their experiences with a topical platelet-enriched autologous ointment in 4 patients with indolent wounds. I strongly urge you to read this provocative multiple case series (along with the randomized controlled trial from Pires' group) to determine whether you should evaluate the possibility of adding a similar formulation to your wound care armamentarium.
This issue's Continence Care section opens with a pragmatic and clinically relevant study evaluating postoperative bladder management in females undergoing urogynecologic surgery. This topic was recently discussed in an article describing the Wound, Ostomy and Continence Nurses Society's (WOCN Society's) latest clinical decision-making tool, "Interventions Post Catheter Removal (IPCaRe) in the Acute Care Setting,"1 and this article extends our knowledge of best practice recommendations for catheter care in the acute care setting by asking first-line RNs to identify their preferences and perceptions of different forms of catheter management in women undergoing pelvic organ prolapse repair. Do nurses prefer indwelling urethral, indwelling suprapubic, or intermittent catheter management and what are their perceptions of patient and surgeon preferences regarding catheter management? Read on and learn more!
Your Continence Care section also provides a study that examined a novel technology for delivering electrical stimulation to the pelvic floor muscles for treatment of stress urinary incontinence in females. The role of electrical stimulation as a form of neuromodulation has evolved from a complement to clinician-assisted pelvic floor muscle training to monotherapy delivered via surgically implanted devices (sacral neuromodulation), percutaneous devices (posterior tibial nerve stimulation), and transcutaneous devices (transcutaneous tibial nerve stimulation). Authored by Heeyoung Lim, Jung Kang, and Hyojung Park, every WOC and continence care nurse or advisor will want to read more about this novel transcutaneous device to determine whether it should play a role in your management of patients with stress urinary incontinence.
The Continence section also describes an intervention for alleviating clinical inertia in staff managing urinary incontinence. Authored by Consuelo Artero-Lopez, Veronica V. Marquez-Hernandez, Maria Teresa Estevez-Morales, Lorena Gutierrez-Puertas, Gabriel Aguilera-Manrique, and Genoveva Granados-Gamez, you will want to read this clinically relevant article to further familiarize yourself with the evolving concept of inertia in clinical care and to determine the applicability of the intervention they describe to your practice as WOC/continence specialist.
Your Ostomy Care section explores a sparsely studied area of ostomy management, nephrostomy tube care. Luis Manuel Fernandez Cacho and Rosa Ayesa Arriola provide a brief research report evaluating the economic effects of a fundamental and powerful nursing intervention, patient education. Read on to find out more about the effect of a structured educational intervention on the costs associated with urgent nephrostomy tube changes, an all too common occurrence in patients requiring long-term nephrostomy tube drainage. In addition, Qin fen Song, Guangxiao Yin, Xiaopeng Guo, Xue Lv, Keling Yu, and Chune Liu summarize the effects of the latest in social media technology on self-management in patients with new colostomies due to colorectal cancer. Given consistent trends toward shorter hospital stays for patients undergoing ostomy creation, this article is a must read as WOC and ostomy care nurses explore new and effective ways to enhance recovery from ostomy surgery.
This issue's Wound Care section opens with a clinically relevant and cogent quality improvement article that reports outcomes of a simple wound care guideline for minor skin lesions. Authored by Alexandra Bates and Elizabeth Ercolano, you will definitely want to read this article to determine if a similar program would benefit wound care quality in your facility. Bruna Pires, Beatriz de Oliveira, Luciana Bokehi, Ronir Luiz, Bernadete Carvalho, Rosimere Santana, Priscilla de Souza, Geraldo de Paula, and Lenise Teixeira authored the second article in this issue that examined use of autologous platelet-rich plasma for topical therapy of venous leg ulcers. Read this randomized controlled trial (along with the Challenges in Practice multiple case series described earlier) to gain the latest knowledge and insight into this promising and emerging topical wound therapy.
Your Wound Care section closes with multisite cross-sectional study that examined the role of social support in the management of chronic wound pain and health-related quality of life. This article, authored by Hui Ren, Daguang Wang, Yanming Ding, Haiyan Hu, Zeying Qin, Xiaojin Fu, Yueyang Hu, Ruilin Cao, Leilei Liang, Chuanen Li, and Songli Mei, qualifies as must read on multiple levels, including the use of a fundamental nursing intervention, enhancing a patient's social support, on wound pain and wound-related quality of life.
Finally, this issue's Getting Ready for Certification from the WOCNCB provides practice questions related to the assessment and management of lower extremity artery disease. Read this highly valued JWOCN section, followed by a more comprehensive review using the curated Collection at the Journal prepared by JWOCN Web page Section Editor Dr. Jody Scardillo.
The global community of authors seeking to publish in JWOCN is as strong as ever. Refer to the Figure to see the home countries of authors publishing in this issue of JWOCN. I further challenge you to join this global community by publishing your work in the official journal of the WOCN Society!
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