Vicky qualified as a nurse in 2002 and embarked on her Burn Care and Plastic Surgery Nursing career as a ward nurse on the Kinmonth Unit at the Leicester Royal Infirmary. In 2011, she joined the Burns & Plastics Specialist Nursing team, supporting the development of specialist burns and plastics services, and complex wound care services with Claire Porter and her team.  In 2012, she completed her BSc in Burn Care & Plastic Surgery nursing, thus, cementing her passion for Burn Care and Plastic Surgery Nursing, and wound care services within the NHS.  She developed adjunct skills, including teaching, becoming a camouflage practitioner, and a micropigmentation practitioner. She has had several abstract submissions to wound care conferences over the last 12 years and was involved with the British Burn Association Nurses SIG group for a year. Vicky now works at the Royal Derby Hospital as a Plastic Surgery Clinical Nurse Specialist and continues to work in Leicester as a micropigmentation practitioner.

Her concurrent Herbal Medicine journey began in the nursing office with her colleagues talking about the antimicrobial crisis and how this was going to impact the future of wound care and patient outcomes in 2018. As a result, she undertook and completed her BSc Clinical Herbalism in 2022, with her final dissertation researching the potential role of Calendula officinalis (English Pot Marigold) as one of many potential solutions to the rise of antimicrobial resistance within wound care.

Vicky feels passionately that there is a role for Herbal Medicine alongside NHS care and would like to develop more joined up collaborative working between the two approaches to healthcare, including raising the profile of herbal therapeutics, research, and collaborative working, particularly within the context of wound care provision.

Poster Presentation (Research category) at The Society of Tissue Viability 2023 Conference

Is there evidence for the role of Calendula officinalis in wound care as an antimicrobial? A systematic review

Abstract

The use of herbal therapeutics is becoming more influential and recognised within orthodox medicinal health care delivery systems. Increasing resistance to antimicrobial therapy has a detrimental impact on patients with wounds as few novel antimicrobial therapies are being developed, increasing the risk of serious morbidity and mortality.

This systematic review evaluates the role of Calendula officinalis in wound care as a topical herbal antimicrobial therapeutic. Searches were conducted through EBSCOhost, TRIP, and Cochrane. 13 in vivo and in vitro studies were selected through the inclusion and exclusion criteria and reviewed utilising the ARRIVE and CONSORT guidelines. 2 of the studies could be dismissed due to poor design or reporting.

The studies included acute wounds only. Calendula officinalis was identified as a safe topical herbal therapeutic that has a potential role as an antimicrobial topical agent, particularly E.coli and S.aureus infections. Limitations of the studies were discussed, including potential barriers to safe implementation for human use in chronic wounds. Potential bias of the author was included as a potential limitation of the review discussion.

There is a further need for global collaboration and research in order to establish Calendula officinalis as a topical antimicrobial product in wound care.